Hearing Nozawa's bold speculation, Coach Ōkawa of Tachikawa nodded. "You've all seen that pitcher's stuff, right? Start putting pressure on him next inning."
"Yes!"
In the top of the fourth, Tachikawa's lineup began with the leadoff batter.
Furuya's pitches were still powerful, but the opposing players did not seem intimidated in the slightest. Even after an inside pitch came close to hitting them, they would step right up to the front of the batter's box on the very next pitch.
They're practically like third-years about to graduate.
In that atmosphere, getting even a single out became extremely troublesome.
Top of the fourth, with two outs.
In the Seido dugout, Kataoka Manager turned to the scorekeeper. "How many pitches?"
"Twenty pitches already this inning, seventy-five for the game."
At the same time, the home plate umpire called out, "Ball four, take your base!"
The third batter had not swung at all. He had boldly guessed that pitch would be high and let it go, successfully drawing a walk.
Every infielder's heart skipped a beat. Everyone knew Furuya's biggest problem was that his pitches tended to sail high, leading to walks.
Tch, what a pain. Is this guy not afraid of getting out? Miyuki found this team increasingly troublesome. Before taking the field, their characteristics had been very vague. They were not particularly outstanding as a pitching team, nor did they have any super-high-school-level power hitters in their lineup.
"Ah, I get it now." Standing in the dugout, Kōshū had been thinking about the same question. "This team has a very mature style."
With no one beside him, Kanemaru watched Kōshū for a while after he failed to continue, then reminded him, "Eijun already went to warm up." So no one was left to keep the conversation going for him.
"I know."