95. Friendly Match (II)

As everyone slowly reached the park in time, Sora and Akira stood in front of the group separated from where they came. The people from the school stood in front of Akira and Sora's teammates in front of him.

Rei looked around as he noticed a couple of people who came, except Suzaku, Suzuki, Tanaka, and Daichi who he already knew there were also the other second years he played within the practice match such as Akamine Rokuro and Hara Takeo.

As he continued to look at the other players, Sora spoke first, "Ok everyone, we all came here to play some fun baseball together. This is the team of the school I go to and because we both have our weekend off, my brother Rei decided to have a fun match with a few members from both teams."

With him completing it was Akira's turn to speak, "Now for the few who might not know me, My name is Ito Akira and I am the captain of the Sensen school team. As, Sora just said now, we all are here to play and have fun."

With that, Akira and Sora decided to pick members for the teams. They decided to mix up the numbers and try to keep it balanced. Rei was the first pick of both the teams but ultimately Akira won with a game of rock, paper, and scissor and Sora got Suzuki as his club catcher couldn't make it.

Next were the pitchers, and they decided that Akira will take Izumi because Suzuki did not have enough practice to catch for him, and as Rei already caught for him many times over the summer, Izumi would be more relaxed while he was pitching.

Both of them continued to take members from both sides. As soon as Akira chose the last member of his team, Rei noticed that each team split the members equally in half, and in his team excluding him was Akira, Daichi, and Akamine.

Both the teams separated themselves as Akira stood before all of them and introduced himself. As he already knew his team members, he asked the others for their position and their batting skills. He listened carefully as he slowly thought of the order of batting in his head. After some time, he decided on the order.

1. CP (2B)

2. Daichi (1B)

3. Rei (C)

4. Akira (SS)

5. CP (LF)

6. CP (RF)

7. Izumi (P)

8. CP (3B)

9. Akamine (CF)

(A/N Couldn't come up with so many players for background characters and hence for all the club members from Sora's side will be CP with their position in the field.)

After that, Akira continued to discuss some tactics for the game and making the members from the club more involved. He noticed Sora was also done with choosing his order and went towards him.

Akira took out a coin and flipped it to decide who goes batting or fielding first. Akira ended up winning the toss and chose to bat first. Then Sora remembered they do not have an umpire for their match and looked around to find someone to play the role.

He noticed a man in his early 30s wearing a cap looking towards them from the entrance of the field and went towards him.

"Sir, Can you act as the umpire for our match?" asked Sora, being respectful for the middle-aged man.

"Me?" asked for confirmation, pointing at himself. Seeing Sora nod, he checked his watch and agreed for the kid's request. He followed Sora back and everyone got to their places.

Suzaku threw some practice pitches to get himself in the zone. Rei wore his gear and observed from the side and felt pleasantly happy as he noticed Suzuki catching better than the practice match a month ago.

The first batter from their side, CP(2B) was up and went to the right box. Rei decided to observe the fielding conditions and the players on the opposite side instead of taking some practice swings.

The umpire signaled the commencement of the game and Suzaku threw the first pitch a bit to the right, inside the zone. Swinging his bat, the batter underestimated his speed and fouled it. He had a look of surprise on his face but recovers from it and takes the stand again.

This time the pitch came right down the middle, only to get fouled again to the third base. The batter brought his bat back into his stance and got ready for the next pitch. Suzaku simply took a deep breath and pitched it once again.

This time the pitch was to the inside, making the batter leave the pitch, hoping for it to be a ball, but the umpire shook his head and signaled an out. Dejected, he came back to the bench as Daichi took his spot in the batter's box.

Rei got inside the deck circle and started to take a couple of swings to warm it up. As he took his swings he heard the bat sound and turned to see the ball go between the shortstop and the 3rd baseman, but Tanaka could grab it,. But too late, as Daichi was already at first base, flexing his hand.

Rei made his way towards the right side of the batter's box and got ready. He looked at Suzaku's completely determined face and clutched his bat tighter to go for the first pitch. According to him, Suzuki would choose the easy pitch to test his reaction, and that would be the best chance to hit the ball.

As he expected the first pitch was a bit right in the box but still manageable. He bought the bat down without hesitation and the ball flew towards the left field. Daichi started to run to the 2nd base as Rei made his way to the first.

Both of them noticed the fielder fumbling with the ball and decided not to stop and directly went to their next base. By the time the 2nd baseman could receive the ball, Rei was already at 2nd while Daichi was at 3rd.

Next came in Akira as he clutched the bat tight intending to bring Daichi home and get a lead in the game.