Kanto Tournament's first battle, Seido versus Yokohama Kohoku.
Kōshū was sitting in Dugout, looking at the audience that was much larger than the junior high school game. A sense of strangeness came over him. The teammates around him were half-baked. The short old man standing at the entrance of Dugout was replaced by a tall and straight young man. Even his own clothes were changed. "High school life is really about to begin.".. '
The start of Seido was not smooth. It was not until the third inning that senior Shirazu hit First Hit, followed by 8-bat Sakai and 9-bat Tanba. They chose to score first to gain the advantage of the game, so Sacrifice Bunt sent the bases in sequence.
"Safe!" Shirazu returned to home base. At this time, the score of the game was 1:0. Seido was also two outs. It was Kuramochi's turn.
"..." Shirazu bumped fists with Kuramochi next to him.
"Good job, Shirazu!"
There was no one on the bases of the two outs, so they had to hit out solidly. Kuramochi held on to the bat tightly. Their ace card had not been hit by the opponent so far. It was really unusual, but his condition meant that he would self-destruct without knowing when, so if he could score points, he had to get them as soon as possible.
"Bump--" No, Slider turned to the outside corner in a hurry. He would only touch the head of the club. Even with a pair of splendid feet, he couldn't outrun the speed of the ball.
"Out!"
"Tch."
Miyuki patted Tanba's chest and said, "Let's score a point first. In that case, let's relax a little when facing Hengxue's last round of tying."
"Hmm -" Tanba stared closely at the field, the strings in his mind as tight as spider silk. He didn't know when he would blow himself up, but the supervisor put Kōshū into First String Dugout in advance, which showed that they did not trust him that much.
In the first half of the fourth inning, after Seido struggled to open up the game, Hengxue's one-two sticks hit Tanba's ball one after another and hit the outfield direction.
"Safe!"*2
From the direction of home plate and second base, the sound of batter's safety On Base came successively.
'The advantage of one point is gone. ' I didn't think about it deliberately, but this voice echoed in Tanba's mind so stubbornly.
"First base!" Miyuki opened his mask. It was too late for third base. He blocked first base and one out. "Time!"
The runner was watching eagerly at third base. Miyuki took a glance and said, "Senior Tanba, don't think about the runner on third base. It's just one run. Concentrate on the next four bats."
Being hit out one after another and facing the crisis of losing two runs in a row, this is when the pitcher's confidence is shaken, 'Come on, Curveball. ' Although Changeup requires a lot of finger sensitivity, you are not the only one who can pitch First String now.
Two Curveball, paired with a straight ball, successfully struck out four Furano.
"Nice!" The team's momentum was greatly boosted, and Tanba also breathed a sigh of relief. Then he also struck out five bats of Hengxue.
'I'm far from ready to blow myself up. ' Tanba's eyes were full of fighting spirit. When he was hit continuously just now, Dugout didn't move at all, which made him feel a little relieved.
"This performance is very good," Kataoka called out to Tanba: "It's not scary when a crisis occurs. Being able to handle it correctly and lead the team to solve the crisis is what an ace should really do."
"Hi——"
Kōshū, who has been sitting on Dugout, saw that the coach added a handful of firewood to Tanba's fire. He was a little unsure whether he could play today.
In the second half of the fourth inning, Seido's top line play still failed to break through the opponent's ace Ino. It was not until the second half of the fifth inning that Senior Masuko hit a double and scored another point. The game returned to the same starting line, tied at 2:2.
"Ah." Kōshū Looking at the anxious score, it turns out that the competition between strong teams is to fight for one or two points.
"What's wrong, are you disappointed? You don't think the supervisor will let you play?" A hot-tempered man came over, and just by hearing this tone, he knew it was the catcher.
"..."
"What's wrong? Ignore me."
"Senior Miyuki, can you come over and put your ear next to me?"
"Nani Nani?"
"I'm very curious, how can two people who have no hits in the game be so leisurely meddling in other people's business." In fact, it's not just Miyuki. In today's game, Seido's top liners collectively misfired, so Kōshū asked him to stay closer to avoid accidentally injuring others.
"..." This time it was Miyuki's turn to be speechless, but he had no time to meddle in other people's business. Seido only scored one point in this game and then changed sides again.
Neither side scored a hit in the sixth inning. Just when Kōshū thought that this anxious atmosphere was going to last until the end, something changed. In the first half of the seventh inning, it was Hengxue's Central Batting Lineup and Third, Fourth, and Fifth Batters's turn to break through the defense again. Hengxue scored another point. No one was out, there were people on first and second base, and they faced the sixth bat.
"Bad ball."*3
"Ah - did you self-destruct again?" Audiences familiar with Seido can already guess the following plot.
"Bad ball! Walk!"
"It's so sudden." This was the first time Kōshū watched Tanba self-destruct at such a close distance. The front was still very stable. It was very sudden. It was just an introduction, and it ignited the bomb in Tanba's heart. 'What on earth is going on, senior Tanba. '
"Kōshū!" Just as he was thinking wildly, the supervisor's voice sounded, "Are you ready to warm up?"
"Ah - okay." Isn't it right? Let him handle this situation? He is still just a newcomer.
"It doesn't matter if you lose points. What's important is to show me your ability to handle crises!" It's chicken soup again.
"Hi——" Kōshū followed the sound of the radio and ran to Pitcher's Mound.
"Seido High School pitcher changed, Tanba came out, pitcher Kōshū, nine bats, pitcher, Kōshū."
The friends who were watching in the stands all exclaimed, "Ah - finally on the stage."
Compared to Lang Zhi and their happiness, the other spectators only had one thought for a moment, 'Seido are you going to give up the game? Leave such a crisis situation to a first grader, even if it is a very promising pitcher, are you not afraid of leaving a psychological shadow on him? '
Many thoughts flashed across everyone's minds, but Kōshū only thought about how to deal with this situation, 'With no one out and the bases loaded, it's not surprising that we lose many runs, but I don't want to end up losing the first game in high school. '
"Leave it to you, Kōshū." Senior Tanba put down his hat, handed the ball to Kōshū, and left in a hurry, leaving the newcomer surrounded by the infield personnel again.
"Don't be nervous, newcomer."
"Wuga." So Senior Masuko What are you talking about.
"Take it easy and we'll answer you with the bat in a moment."
"Haha, you all dote on him too much. He is not an ordinary newcomer." The loving atmosphere was broken by Miyuki. "Kōshū, do you understand the supervisor's intention of replacing you? The supervisor doesn't want to lose yet, so the situation that Ace can no longer solve will be left to you to handle. Can you respond to his expectations?"
"Hey, hey, don't put so much pressure on the newcomers!"
"Tsk, Senior Miyuki, you are still really putting pressure on people. What you are going to do in a while depends entirely on your coordination Senior Miyuki. In this case, I think the opponent will definitely hit a very high Fly Ball, so be prepared to lose a point and grab third or second base."
"It's very practical. I didn't expect that your brain was not beaten to pulp by the crisis."
The result was much better than Kōshū expected. He was thinking of a normal scenario. Faced with this new student who couldn't figure out the details, Hengxue actually began to underestimate the enemy at first, "Kill that new guy off the field!"
'Straight ball inside corner. ' Kōshū pitched a ball with a speed of 143 kilometers and a rotation speed of 2400+. In addition, the very positive axis of rotation prevents energy loss. This ball not only has the characteristics of drifting up, but when it reaches Home Plate, it is almost the same as the release speed, and it goes straight into the batter's chest.
"Wow -" One ball, just one ball, was enough to silence Hengxue's blaring supervisor.
"That's amazing," Haruichi looked at Lang Zhi, who also had stars in his eyes.
Only Eijun looked serious, thinking about what senior Chris said just now, "So, you will never become the ace, as long as he is in the team."
What he said is true...
'Is it really possible to transfer to another school as he said? No, then what's the point of going all the way to Tokyo? But - he and I are in the same grade. What should we do and how can we become the ace?.. '
Eijun, who had always been optimistic, felt a huge sense of crisis.