Central's team stood up from the benches in the changing room, ready to go out to the field. The siren had officially blared, and now all they had to do was wait to be announced and walk out. Link held his glove tightly with both hands as he stood, breathing deeply to control his nerves. Though he didn't want to admit it, the pressure was getting to him.
It had started building a few days before the game, as his coach had announced their jersey numbers prior to the match. As soon as Muzu had called his number, a pit started to grow in his stomach. Number 1 meant that he was now the starter, but it also meant much more than that. It meant that Link was now viewed as the ace, the player who everyone else would view as the backbone of the team. It was an open admittance to everyone that Link was viewed as the best player on the squad, and it also showed the amount of trust Central's players and coach placed on him.
Now, he was standing in front of his teammates, about to lead them onto the field. He closed his eyes and tried his hardest to take slow, controlled breaths, attempting to appear calm and collected on the outside.
"Wild, a word please," Muzu called out, interrupting Link's thought process.
"Yes?" He asked as he walked towards his coach.
"Look," The old man said as he pulled Link farther from his team, "Take a breath, calm down."
Link looked at his coach, surprised. He was nervous, but he'd been trying his absolute best to hide it from everyone. He thought he'd been doing a good job of it, but it was clear that his coach had read him perfectly.
"Yeah," Link replied, breathing out in an attempt to release some of the tension on his shoulders, "I'm just a little nervous, sorry."
"It's alright, it's normal." Muzu reasoned, but as he noticed Link's anxious expression he continued "Relax, don't worry about everyone else. Out there it's just you, the batter, and Yunobo, okay?"
"Yes sir." He nodded.
"No one else matters when you're throwing," The coach stated, reassuring his player, "Just worry about getting the ball to your catcher."
"Okay." Link said, still taking deep breaths. Which combined with Muzu's words made him feel less anxious than before.
"Good," Muzu slapped his pitcher's shoulder lightly, before turning to the rest of the team, "Now all of you, please calm down, you guys all look like coiled springs."
There was some chuckling from the players, some of the tension leaving their bodies.
"Just go out there and play the way you've practiced for the last two months, you've all grown as players since."
Link had noticed a change in Muzu's ways since their last game as if his coaching philosophy had changed since Revali had left the team. He now focused more on keeping up the players' morale, congratulating them more, and having more one-on-one time with struggling players. He also taught them what to do when they made mistakes, instead of berating them as he used to. Muzu had now found great ways to motivate his players, which contrasted heavily with his old, more strict, way of coaching.
Link didn't know what exactly had caused the change, but theorized it was because he was trying to make up for all the freedoms he'd given his last pitcher; who had used his favoritism to think of himself higher than the team. This new style greatly improved the team's mood and motivation in training, but they still felt nervous as they hadn't played an official game yet.
"And now, please welcome," As the announcer's voice blared from outside, the team started walking out the door in a line, "Our very own: Central High!"
Link heard clapping from the stands as he led the rest of his team through the field. He kept his gaze forward, only focused on walking to the pitcher's mound. As soon as he got to his spot, he finally turned around to face the audience. The scene in front left him paralyzed for a second. Even if they were only about half full, the stands in front of him had more people than he'd seen in almost all of last season. Even if the team had set out to invite as many people as possible, he didn't have much hope for a high attendance. After all, they had been an awful team not so long ago.
The announcer started introducing each of the players on the team, starting with the one farthest away from him. Some of the crowd cheered with every name called, but it was scattered. As Link looked at the audience, the pit in his stomach became larger and the edges of his vision started getting dark. He was well and truly feeling the pressure now and wasn't sure how he was going to get through the next nine innings of baseball feeling this anxious.
"...Yunobo Goron!" The announcer's words pulled him out of his trance for a second, recognizing that his turn would come soon. But before he could let his nerves spike even higher, he heard loud cheering and banging drums from a group near the front of the stands. They were also holding various signs, one of them read: Go Yunobo Go!
Link looked over at his teammate just in time to witness his flushed face. While he was definitely still nervous, seeing Yunobo's relatives cheer for him like that made him feel a little better.
"And last but definitely not least," He heard over the speakers, making him look back at the audience, "Our new pitcher! Link Wild!"
He raised his hand to wave at the people watching, smiling as some of the pressure lifted from his shoulders and his vision became clearer than before. He scanned the crowd with his eyes, taking in all of the different people who had attended, before stopping on a golden-haired girl.
Zelda! He thought, She actually came!
She and her group, who Link assumed were her friends, were standing up from their seats. They were cheering so loud Link could hear it even from where he stood. He smiled brightly and genuinely at them, his earlier nervousness almost completely leaving his body. The fact that Zelda could show up had made him feel even more anxious before the game; but now, seeing her excitedly cheering as his name was called, made him feel warm and light, as if all of the extra pressure had just disappeared from his body.
It was time for the game to start, so the team shook hands with their opponents before taking their positions on the field. Link stepped up to the mound, adjusting the glove on his left hand. The umpire walked up to him and gave him a ball before walking to his spot behind Yunobo.
It wasn't long before he signaled the start of the game, which was followed by a loud siren. Link straightened up, closed his eyes, and breathed in deeply. He touched the rim of his cap with his thumb and index finger, dropped his hand down, and grabbed the ball, shuffling it in his palm as he breathed out slowly. A part of him still felt nervous, but he managed to focus on the game. Everything grew quiet around him as he managed to block everything out but the batter and catcher in front of him. He hesitated for one more second before starting his pitch.
He straightened up, standing with his left leg in front of the right. He brought up his left knee near his stomach and brought up his hands behind the side of his face, like a coiled spring. He waited for a half breath, before pushing forward with his right leg, leaving his pitching arm behind. He started arching his arm back as his leg extended, and right as he was about to touch the ground with his left foot, he threw his arm forward with as much force as he could muster. The ball left his hand as his body continued forward, his right leg raising as he put all of his weight on the other, moving forward with the momentum.
As Link came to a stop, a satisfying thud could be heard as the ball made contact with Yunobo's glove.
"Strike!" The umpire called, followed by a wave of cheers from the crowd. He had thrown as hard as he possibly could, hoping to make an impression on the audience. Seeing as he managed to do exactly what he set out to do, Link felt his confidence returning to him. He proceeded to straighten up and hold up his glove for the catcher to throw the ball back to him.
He repeated the same motion once again, starting with touching the rim of his cap with his index finger and thumb, throwing another fastball at Yunobo. The batter tried to hit it this time, but he was too slow for the pitch's speed.
"Strike two!"
Link stretched his throwing arm a little, hoping to get rid of any stiffness. He was completely in the moment now, all of his previous worries seemed like they didn't matter at all. He just needed one more good throw, one more strike to get the batter out. Closing his eyes for a moment, the pitcher thought of his next throw's position. He wanted to switch it up this time, choosing to go for another type of pitch. Decided, he huffed and opened his eyes. He repeated his pre-pitch routine, knowing exactly what to do next.
Link felt his entire body move as a unit as he threw his third pitch of the game; it was unlike his first two, as it was slightly slower while gradually dropping on its way toward the batter. The opponent swung his bat desperately trying to get any amount of contact with the ball, but it simply went under him.
"Strike three!" The umpire exclaimed, straightening up from his bent position. Both the crowd and the Castle Town batter were shocked. Everybody thought that this game would be a blowout, even the few fans the team still had. But instead, Link had just thrown the batter out while showing minimal effort.
He had officially gotten his first official high school strikeout.
He relaxed for a second, breaking his focus for the time the batters would take to switch. He was greeted with clapping coming from the crowd, which he attributed to the fact that he'd shown some of his best pitching. He held up his hand with one finger raised, signaling to the crowd that was out number one. This was followed by louder cheering coming from the stands, particularly in two sectors: Yunobo's family and Zelda with her friends.
Link let a small smile appear on his lips, but didn't have much time to dwell on the crowd's reaction before the next batter was up. He breathed deeply and straightened up, once again silencing everything around him except for the two players directly in front of him.
The next two batters were struck out similarly, the pitches' sheer speed left them unable to swing properly at the ball. None of them had managed to get proper contact with the ball, with only one foul ball and no balls in the entire first half of the inning. As soon as the third batter was out, Link let out a long breath, relieved at the fact he'd managed three strikeouts in a row. The world around him started to expand as he dropped his focus, and his hearing was immediately assaulted by the sounds of his teammates and the crowd's cheers.
"What a strong start for Link Wild!" The announcer called, "Who quickly takes care of the visitors' first three batters!"
The audience seemed to cheer louder than before, fuelled by the announcer's words, who was trying to get the crowd excited. While some had been invited to support their friends and family, the rest had been locals who were invited by both the school and its players. This last group had been convinced to go mostly to show support for their local high school team. The reality was that they had only attended to be polite to their community's request. But now, after Link's dominant display, the energy in the stands had changed, and slowly more and more of the crowd was watching and participating in the cheers.
Link looked down as he jogged towards his team's dugout, while a part of him was happy that the crowd seemed more attentive than before, he didn't want to drop his concentration entirely. He shared a high five with some of his teammates as he went to the bench, ready for the second half of the inning to start. As soon as he sat down, he became aware of the sudden drop in his energy.
"Feeling tired?" Link looked up and saw Muzu standing close to him.
"A bit actually," He admitted, "I'm not sure why."
"Sleep well?"
"Uh, not really." He responded as he recalled the night before. Link had tried his best to go to bed at a decent hour, but it soon became clear that his nerves would not let him. He tossed and turned for what felt like hours, anxious about the match to come the next day. "But I don't feel sleepy at all."
"Hmm," His coach thought for a bit before responding, "You may have just used more energy than you're used to. It's the hardest I've seen you throw."
The coach was half right, Link thought to himself. He'd thrown countless pitches during summer, so throwing one inning of pitches shouldn't even make him break a sweat. What really drained him more than he expected was his focus. He'd never needed this amount of concentration in practice, and it was taking its toll on him physically.
"Maybe, I just wanted to get a good start." He half lied while looking down, not wanting to admit his own head was tiring him.
"Well, you did," Muzu replied, "But it won't matter if you're dead tired in three innings."
"Yeah, I'm sorry."
"No need," The coach held up his hand, stopping any more apologies from his player, "Just pace yourself, trust your fielders to get them out."
"Okay."
"Good," He turned to one of his other players, "Now, get up there Taurus!"
"Yes sir," The player responded. Taurus was the team's center fielder and a year older than Link. He was a reliable leadoff batter, getting on base a decent amount to set up his teammates. Unfortunately for him, the next players on last season's rotation were third-years who had all but given up on the team and would usually not follow up on his hits.
Link sat back as his teammate ran off to home plate, putting his cap over his eyes. The higher amount of noise was a little overwhelming now that he wasn't on the mound, and having to wait until he had to get up there again did not help. The amount of focus he had to be in while pitching was hard to maintain, so he tried to breathe slowly to rest his mind in the meantime.
He busied himself with thinking about his pitches. He was happy with their speed, but he was still worried about his low variety, having only two throws to his disposal at the moment. Up until now, he had relied mostly on his four-seam fastball, which had little movement while approaching but had a lot of speed, and he could also throw a decent forkball. The latter he'd used to seal his first strikeout, but if used too much it could be a little predictable, so he was using it sparingly.
"Hylia!" Link's thoughts were interrupted as Yunobo exclaimed next to him. The catcher tapped his pitcher's shoulder excitedly, "Did you see that?"
Link took off his cap and looked at Yunobo, puzzled. He simply pointed towards the field, where he could see Taurus sprinting around first base, the opposing team's outfielders scrambling to grab a ball that went their way.
The ace shook off his doubts and stood up, going to the fence to cheer on his teammate. He wanted it to be different from the last season, where the team just sat down as soon as they came to the dugout; which didn't help with their morale at all. He was still nervous, and a little overwhelmed, but he wanted his teammates to know that he was rooting for them no matter what. He hoped he could lead them to do the same for the rest.
By the time the opposing team managed to get the ball, Taurus was reaching second base. The crowd cheered, a double to lead the game for Central was as unexpected as their new pitcher's three strikeouts. Link clapped and cheered loudly, which made Yunobo go up to the fence with him and do the same.
The next batter, right fielder Toren, went up to bat. He was in the same year as Taurus and had taken up the position after the third-year's departure. They were friends, as far as Link could tell, which made them a good duo to lead the batting order. He looked at the runner on second, nodding to him.
The pitcher threw a fastball, but Toren was already in position. Crouched with one of his hands on the middle part of his bat, he held it in front of the ball instead of swinging like a batter normally would. A sacrifice bunt, as it was called, usually led to an out in exchange for advancing one of the runners on base. The ball bounced off the bat into the grass in front, and the batter ran as quickly as he could to first base while the other runner sprinted to third.
Castle Town's catcher ran to the ball, as he was the closest one, and instead of getting the guaranteed out at first, he threw the ball to third base. Fortunately for Central's team, the throw was too high for the third baseman, and it sailed behind him toward the end of the field, where no player was close. Taurus took the opportunity and rounded third base, setting his eyes on the home plate.
The left fielder finally managed to reach the ball and desperately threw it towards home plate. But it was too late, the runner was already there as the ball flew towards the catcher. He scored, and Central High's baseball team was up 1-0 at the bottom of the first. Link cheered loudly for his teammate along with the rest of his team, jumping up and down in celebration.
Now, more than ever, he was confident they could win.