After Tanba, Yakushi's Sanada finally showed off the skills of an ace as well.
"Get ready, Tanba." Miyauchi rose to his feet.
Another inning was about to begin. The aces of both teams traded blows like this, allowing hits now and then but never letting them turn into effective scoring opportunities, shutting down each other's batters all the way until the top of the sixth inning.
Tanba's pitches were incredibly powerful today. Nearly every ball went exactly where Miyuki wanted it, and that curveball with its particularly sharp vertical break had never missed either. A Tanba Senior in such perfect form and working so well with him was something Miyuki rarely saw, but—
"Crack—" When he faced Todoroki Raichi for the third time, even Miyuki, after racking his brains, could not find a way to strike him out again. Raichi had already seen every one of Tanba's pitches and was thoroughly familiar with his batting rhythm, so he sent Tanba's proudest curveball flying. The ball sailed toward left field. Kōshū kept backing up, backing up, then finally stopped and watched it fly into the stands.
"He hit it out!" Todoroki Raichi's first hit of the game was a Home Run.
"A two-run shot! The gap between the two sides has suddenly narrowed to two runs!"
"Nice one, Raichi!"
"Just as expected of my son!!"
The spectators, who had long watched Seido suppress Yakushi, finally saw the scene they had been hoping for. The crowd immediately stirred into an uproar. "That's it! This is what I wanted to see!"
"Turn Seido upside down!"
"Go, Yakushi! I'll be cheering for you!"
Amid the uproar, every Seido player's breathing grew a little lighter. They all looked toward the man on the Pitcher's Mound. Once Raichi ran back to home plate, Miyuki immediately called