shortstop // kuramochi

0.2 // smile

seido's baseball field was impressive.

the baseball team had impressive utilities at their disposal. multiple fields, new equipment, different facilities, and a huge team.

maiko was almost jealous.

because her league was just getting started, and also public, their equipment wasn't nearly as impressive. but maiko wouldn't dwell on what she couldn't control. the novice center fielder woke up at the crack of dawn the morning after her first practice to try her coach's 'assignment'.

watching seido practice in the afternoon would be difficult on days she had softball practice, which was usually a good portion of the week. so maiko would have to settle for early mornings from now on.

puffing air from her cheeks, she walked carefully on the outskirts of the practice fields, careful not to be noticed by any of the players setting up. practice for seido looked like it would start in a few minutes and maiko wanted a good view of the team where they wouldn't have a good view of her. she was sure they wouldn't pay much attention to her anyway, but just to be safe.

"they're practicing. they're not going to notice me if they're being serious," she found a nice patch of grass some ways away from the practice field the majority of the team seemed to file into and made herself comfortable. "at least the grass isn't wet," she smoothed her skirt down.

after a few minutes it seemed the entire team was out on the field and practice would start. maiko noticed a few things now that she was settled in. first, they would be focusing mostly on warm-ups and drills, which was fine. she hadn't really expected them to do any full practice games or anything. second, no one else came out to watch the team this early in the morning. there were lots of people hanging around the practice field when she left school the day before, so she just assumed there would be some other spectators in the morning.

seido's baseball team was good. she could tell from the different drills she was seeing, they had overwhelming talent, and even more potential as a team. watching the batting practices and fielding drills was getting her excited and her mind wandered off to her own practice later in the day.

baseball was on of her favorite sports, and maiko had to admit she wanted to play it more than softball when she was younger. eventually, after realizing she wouldn't go far in male-dominated baseball, maiko found a passion in softball. at a glance it didn't seem as difficult as baseball. a larger ball, a field half the size of a baseball field, and seven innings instead of nine. but after trying it out and watching games on the internet her opinion swayed quickly.

the smaller size of the field made the reaction time for batters less than in baseball, even if the ball wasn't coming as fast. the small diamond size made getting on base annoyingly difficult if you managed to get a hit. and the shorter reaction time went for the fielders, too.

not to mention, she was pretty proud of the pitching style in softball. the windmill pitch was a force to be reckoned with. she thought she wanted to pitch when she was younger. she got over that pretty quickly after trying it. southpaws in softball were also serious business. she was pretty sure she'd never seen a left-handed windmill pitcher that wasn't good. maiko observed that all the pitchers on her team were right-handed, though. at least she thought so.

observing wasn't that bad. maiko wasn't sure what she was supposed to take from just watching the team, though. practice ideas? motivation?

the fielding drills were impressive and she appreciated the fact that all the players, regardless of position, were practicing them seriously. she could see the outfielders were especially talented, like they practiced these drills in their sleep. the team was getting livelier and excited shouting soon pierced the air as they hyped themselves up.