Pre-Game Preparations

"But if I don't lift my foot, won't the power from the rotation be weaker?" Kōshū asked cautiously.

"You're still relying more on instinct when you hit right now, aren't you? Then it'd be better to let the ball come in closer and make its path more definite. With your physical ability, you should be able to do it."

"Okay..." Kōshū was still hesitant. Although he had only been in the baseball world for a short time, every batting motion he had learned and seen involved first lifting the foot inward, then stepping forward, using the twist of the hips to drive the whole body's power into the swing.

Following Kinoshita Yanagi's demonstration, Kōshū took a few swings but couldn't find the feel for it.

"Even without lifting your left foot, your left hip still draws inward before the swing, giving you more time to react. It may not be obvious at the middle-school level, but once you're an adult and grow past 190 centimeters, your physical qualities will be incredible. This little difficulty won't be anything to you."

Kōshū had enormous physical potential, similar to those big-framed white players Kinoshita Yanagi had seen in America. This batting stance was actually more suitable for Kōshū, which was why he had sought him out first.

"If you can't find the feeling, start with tee batting. You've only just begun playing baseball, so your batting stance is still easy to adjust." They said a new official always made three bold moves upon taking office. Since he was already back, he had to establish something of his own. At this stage, the other players had all practiced their hitting under Coach Maeda for a long time. If he went over to coach them, he might ruin their batting feel.

Kōshū was doubtful inside, but he agreed outwardly. Shibasaki, on the other hand, was quite diligent; before Kōshū could even react, he had brought over a batting tee. During the afternoon training session, Kinoshita Yanagi stubbornly refused to spare even a glance at First String practice and spent all his time among the Second String.

The boys who had initially been intimidated by Kinoshita Yanagi's title of "Little League coach" began to stir as well. Hayakawa Aki was pushed out and became the first to ask the new batting coach for guidance.

"Coach Kinoshita, I'm not very good at hitting Outside Corner Balls. Could you give me some advice?"

"Of course. You're Hayakawa Aki, right? I've watched your batting footage. Your swing timing is a little early, so you tend to hit pop flies."

"Huh? Coach Kinoshita knows my name?"

"Of course. I know everyone here." That was why he had not made the players introduce themselves today and had gone straight into training.

Hayakawa Aki felt a little more respect for the coach. He had probably spent a great deal of time memorizing the entire roster and matching names to faces, so Aki listened especially carefully to Kinoshita Yanagi's subsequent instruction.

"Also, your bat speed is slightly slow. The peak exertion of each part of the body should happen in sequence, allowing power to transfer along a chain without wasting energy. Strength does not necessarily mean speed. Only proper force generation creates speed. It's basically the same as pitching." With his hair dyed black and black-rimmed glasses on, Kinoshita Yanagi unexpectedly seemed reliable.

"So, in my opinion, you need to improve your ability to adapt to pitches with different rhythms. Outside Corner Balls are far from the body, while Inside Corner Balls are the opposite. If you use the same state of exertion to hit an Outside Corner Ball, then when you force the bat to reach for it, there will definitely be a loss of energy. So once you realize it's an Outside Corner Ball, you have to be able to adjust your body's state. Do you understand what I mean?" Seemingly unaccustomed to the weight on his nose, he pushed up his glasses.

"So, with the same initial speed, after identifying different pitch types, I switch my own gear?"

"That's exactly it. You need to further strengthen your control over your body." He pointed at Kōshū again. "You can also start with tee batting. First clearly distinguish the two states, then add tossed-ball net hitting, and finally move on to live practice against a pitcher's Inside and Outside Corner Balls."

"Okay, I'll give it a proper try." Although he bore everyone's hopes of digging up gossip, Hayakawa Aki was an old hand at gathering information and knew he could not be too abrupt at a time like this. He moved aside first and began thinking over his batting.

With Hayakawa Aki opening things up, everyone after him had it much easier. Kōshū was still practicing on the tee off to the side, while Shibasaki helped check whether his stance had become distorted.

"Thanks, Shibasaki-kun. But is it just my imagination? Why do I feel like you care even more about my hitting than I do?"

"It's painful for a pitcher to have no offensive support on the field. So if the pitcher himself is a strong hitter, he'll have even stronger control over the field." Shibasaki still spoke in that gentle tone.

"Control over the field?"

"Right. On defense, the pitcher is the center. On offense, if the pitcher can also bat in the heart of the order, then in a sense, wouldn't he be completely directing the flow of the game?" That was unexpectedly imposing.

"Shibasaki-kun, do you want to become that kind of pitcher?"

"No. At my current stage, I already have more than enough pitching work to do. I just think you can become that kind of person, so I have high hopes for you~"

Just as parents placed their unfulfilled wishes on their children, everyone projected their own wishes onto those around them to some extent. Shibasaki, still battling his own digestive system, knew his future path very clearly. Because he understood his own road so well, watching Kōshū develop in that direction did not make him jealous. He only felt an interest somewhat like raising a character.

"I don't really understand, but thanks for having expectations of me?" Kōshū's puzzled expression amused Shibasaki.

The two took turns batting like that until training ended for the day.

As usual, there was a briefing in the meeting room. Coach Ninomiya held a stack of materials and handed them out to everyone, but none of the players lowered their heads to read them. They continued sitting upright and looking forward. "This contains all the information on Jonan Little League, whom we'll face in two days. They should be the strongest team we've encountered since the Kanto Tournament began, so everyone must memorize their player information."

"Yes, sir—"

The next person to speak was still Coach Yoshida of the Infield Group. He had edited together several of Jonan Little League's games from the Kanto Tournament.

"Leadoff batter, Carlos. His defining trait is extremely fast baserunning. He is Jonan Little League's table-setter." He started the footage, which included clips of Carlos getting On Base on an infield grounder, stealing second from first, and charging home from second.

Pausing the footage, he had everyone turn to the first page of the materials in their hands. "He's mixed-race, so his reach is longer than that of most Asians, which is very advantageous when hitting Outside Corner Balls. The data I got from the official scorers shows that other players have roughly a five percent higher chance of failing to hit Outside Corner Balls well than Carlos does. However, perhaps due to insufficient power, Carlos's hits on Outside Corner Balls generally land more shallowly, so right field should move in a little."

The right fielders answered in unison. Kinoshita Little League would coordinate its defensive alignment with the battery's Pitching Strategy and the batter's weaknesses, which required every player to understand the reasoning beforehand.

"But don't make it too obvious. Two steps forward will be enough."

"Next, the second batter..."

By the time Coach Yoshida had finished discussing Jonan Little League's entire lineup of Regulars, nearly an hour had passed. Coach Ninomiya gave the final summary. "We only finished a game yesterday, and we have another one in two days. The Kanto Tournament schedule will speed up as the number of participating teams shrinks, and the teams left behind are all tough opponents. We won't be winning as easily as we did in the first two games. You must remember that!"

"Yes, sir—"

This time, even all the Second String members took part in the game-preparation scrimmage. Following the order of a speedy leadoff runner, a high-average second batter, a highly skilled third batter, and a powerful cleanup hitter, they gave the First String a lower-tier version of Jonan Little League.

Kōshū was the Second String's cleanup hitter. His weight had just surpassed 70 kilograms, but his control over his physical strength was already extremely strong. Since he had not yet gotten used to the new batting stance, he switched back to his old approach. Even so, he put enormous pressure on Senior Nozawa of the First String.

He's already seen a fastball in this spot. Now let's give him a beautiful Slider. He'll probably have trouble reacting in time to hit it well. Captain Ido kept his glove at the outside corner and gave the Signals.

Nozawa glanced at the batter by first base to relax himself. Kōshū's eyes were too sharp, like a beast that fed on baseballs.

"Whew—" Adrenaline had him utterly fired up as he threw a beautiful Slider across in front of Kōshū.

"See you~" Kōshū punched the ball through the gap between first and second, where it dropped in front of right field.

"You brat, don't greet your seniors like that!" Senior Nozawa flared up on the Pitcher's Mound, though he did not look particularly angry. This was also one of the ways Kōshū had gradually learned to communicate with different people. Senior Nozawa was the kind of person who did not care too much about seniority.

Since it was a practice game, the Second String only needed to help the First String adapt to the opponent's characteristics. After a ten-minute break, the Second String went straight back out to bat. By the time both First String pitchers had gone through four rounds like that, training was over, and tomorrow would be the Quarterfinals.

After the Quarterfinals, the Kanto Tournament would be held entirely at the Official Stadium, and tickets would go on sale.

"Hm? Miyuki isn't in the round-of-eight-to-four games?" Kōshū flipped through the competing teams but did not find Miyuki's team.

"Yeah, they were eliminated in their last game. They played four games, while Marugame Little League had played one fewer, and they lost to them again."

"Again?"

"Marugame Little League used to have a catcher known as the 'number one iron catcher.' Miyuki was always dissatisfied with him, mainly because he had never beaten him. I didn't expect that even after that guy left, Miyuki still couldn't win. He must be pretty frustrated." Asking Hayakawa Aki had indeed been the right choice.

"That explains it. He used to keep shouting about dragging me to a sporting goods store every day, so why did he suddenly go quiet?" He had not come to bother Kōshū for three or four days already. Aside from feeling fortunate, Kōshū rarely felt a little sorry for Miyuki.

"Miyuki doesn't get along very well with pitchers, does he?" Kōshū edited a text message. Watching the games was boring anyway, so it would not hurt to provoke Miyuki a little.

Watching Kōshū excitedly prepare to send Miyuki photos of the field, Hayakawa Aki thought, Why does Kōshū seem so different from when he first joined the team? Is it just my imagination? He feels like he's getting more and more childish.

This week was hell week.

Cry out loud.