"Three outs! Switch sides!"
The game had reached the top of the eighth. A three-run gap was the cruel reality facing Yakushi High School.
"Can't be helped. After all, they're Seido High School," Coach Todoroki said, saying something that should not have come out of his mouth. Seeing everyone's spirits visibly flag, he immediately changed his tune. "But Raichi can bring back this gap with one Grand Slam. So our goal now is to fill every base before Raichi comes up! We can't let Raichi get walked again."
"Yes!!" With those words, he had reduced the entire game to Todoroki Raichi hitting a Home Run, while turning everyone else's confusion into simply getting On Base. It was like flattening three-dimensional people into stick figures.
If only it were really that easy. Coach Todoroki was naturally not that naïve. Seido's actions over the past few innings had plainly told Yakushi: We really are afraid of your cleanup hitter, so it's fine if we just walk him, right?
His gaze returned to the field, where Coach Todoroki noticed something different. The announcement answered his question.
"Notice of a player substitution for Seido High School... Left fielder, Kōshū. Pitcher, Sawamura-kun."
A player resembling a Shiba Inu dashed toward the Pitcher's Mound with his glove, laughing nonstop. "Hahahaha, Pitcher's Mound! Hahaha, Pitcher's Mound!"
Then Kōshū, who had deliberately come over, immediately kicked him. "Yakushi's top of the order is coming up. Don't get so carried away. Did you understand what the manager said?"
With an iron fist right beside his face, how could Eijun dare not nod? "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Don't worry, big brother. You just stay in left field. Leave the Pitcher's Mound to me!"
"Mm." He answered perfunctorily, but Kōshū was still irritated by those words. *That guy never thinks before he