After Kuramochi's sacrifice bunt, where he had practically flung his entire body out, Inajitsu's pitcher-catcher battery grew more vigilant.
Since the runner had already reached third, there was no helping it. Better to concede one run and secure the outs first.
With that in mind, Hayakawa set the signals.
Kōshū remained properly glued to the base. When the pitcher swept his gaze over him again, he looked especially innocent. What are you looking at? It's not like I'm about to run. It's not as if I'd steal home.
The catcher's gaze swept over as well. Shirazu batted left-handed, so the path from third to home was completely unobstructed.
The runner could only behave himself, though his eyes stayed fixed on the pitcher's feet.
Then the pitcher took a quick step forward. The atmosphere that had just been frozen suddenly sprang to life. Home plate, third base—everywhere came alive because of this one pitch.
Like he had heard a sprinter's starting gun, Kōshū immediately left the base, while Shirazu met the incoming White Shadow with his bat.
After pouring all the anger trapped on the mound into that pitch, the pitcher quickly broke into a run as well.
"Bzzzz—" The ball came in with terrifying force. Under such intense tension, Shirazu seemed to hear the disturbed air whistling around the rapidly spinning baseball.
It slammed straight into him. "Bang—"
For a moment, Shirazu could barely hold onto the bat. The force was too great. A sacrifice bunt really was not so easy to pull off.
But there was no room for hesitation now. Kōshū had charged to about a third of the way down the line, and Shirazu struggled to take the force out of the ball.
Too high! He dropped the bat and turned to run for first.
"Let it