First Complete Game Shutout

In the top half of the second inning, Kōshū returned to the Pitcher's Mound. The Pitcher's Mound, which he had messed up in the first inning, now had traces of others on it. For some reason, he felt a little uncomfortable. He roughly smoothed out the soil, and that feeling subsided.

'What's wrong with me? Is it because the last inning ended too quickly?' Kōshū silently questioned his sudden, strange possessiveness.

The cheers from the Dugout echoed in his ears, reverberating across the empty field.

'Were there cheers last inning too?' Without thinking, Kōshū knew that everyone must have been cheering for him last inning as well, but the adrenaline had blocked out all sounds. After a round of adjustments, the hormones subsided slightly, wrapped in a sugar coating, and the true taste of the game began to emerge.

"Nice pitch!" Hayakawa Aki threw the ball over, hoping to bring the somewhat distracted Kōshū back into the game.

Kōshū rotated the baseball twice, ceasing his random thoughts.

In the second inning, the first batter he faced was the cleanup hitter and captain of the Yoshinaga Little League Team.

Hayakawa Aki, also a captain, squatted behind Home Plate, observing the cleanup hitter. 'This cleanup hitter had 3 hits and 1 RBI in 4 at-bats in the Kanto Tournament's Round of 32. In that game, he seemed to be the fifth batter. His characteristic, I remember, is...'

Hayakawa Aki's thinking didn't delay his signals, and he quickly indicated an Inside Corner Ball that would be a ball.

'What's going on? There's no need to throw a ball to this batter.' Kōshū understood that Nozawa-senpai's advice was correct, but standing on the Pitcher's Mound, he couldn't suppress the thoughts in his head.

The Inside Corner Ball rushed past the Yoshinaga cleanup hitter's chest, and he quickly straightened up to avoid it.

The second pitch was a low Outside Corner Ball on the sideline. The last time, the umpire called it a strike. This time, he would verify the umpire's strike zone for today.

"Strike!" Another one picked up, lucky! It seems the umpire's strike zone is quite wide today.

So, the third pitch was another Inside Corner Ball near the chest. 'Don't throw a hit-by-pitch,' Hayakawa Aki gently circled his glove. Although Kōshū's pitches had always been accurate, his expression had been a bit stiff since the start of this inning, making Hayakawa afraid he would suddenly collapse.

Kōshū understood that his condition was a bit off, but he could still instinctively throw the ball into the glove.

"Thwack—" The cleanup hitter looked back at the glove, understanding that the catcher was scheming against him. It seemed he knew that he was good at hitting Inside Corner Balls. If he had the ability, he should throw an Inside Corner Ball for a strike.

Ask and you shall receive. The next pitch was a low Inside Corner Ball.

The Yoshinaga cleanup hitter's eyes lit up. They all knew that this pitcher from the Kinoshita Little League Team didn't have a Changeup. Two consecutive Inside Corner Balls near the chest had made him very familiar with this pitcher's Straight Ball, so he could just hit it directly.

The bat swung out with great force, but as the ball flew towards Home Plate, the Yoshinaga cleanup hitter felt something was wrong.

'What? A bit of a drop? It shouldn't drop this much.' It was too late to adjust his stance. The baseball, not hit squarely, was muffled in the infield, and the cleanup hitter was instantly out.

In order not to disturb the fifth batter, the Yoshinaga cleanup hitter didn't pass on any information to his teammate as they passed by, but he quickly informed the coach of this news after reaching the Dugout.

"A Straight Ball that drops?" The coach rubbed his graying hair, a tuft of messy hair sticking up near his ear. "Ninomiya-kun, you're really cunning. This is probably that low-spin Straight Ball. He spent a year researching it before successfully putting it into practice. I didn't expect the pitchers on their team to already know it? Next time, I'll give him more wine and make him reveal the secrets of teaching it."

"That... Coach..." The cleanup hitter's questioning tone brought the coach back to his senses.

"Oh, even if this pitcher's Straight Ball has two or three variations, they are all still Straight Balls. They can only rely on the change before Home Plate to make it difficult to hit. Afterwards, all of you stand a little closer and actively swing to affect the opposing pitcher!"

"Yes—"

Amidst the chorus of agreement, the cleanup hitter heard the voice of the fifth batter behind him.

"Eh? Why are you here too?"

"..."

"He hit an infield fly." A busybody in the Dugout answered for the speechless fifth batter.

"The umpire's strike zone seems particularly wide today." The fifth batter ignored everyone's laughter, relaying the information he had obtained.

The white-haired old man rubbed his messy hair again, "This pitcher's deviation value is unexpectedly high. Although it's only been less than two innings, I see that his bad balls are basically what the catcher asked for. The players who get on base later need to observe carefully, and then Makino—."

Catcher Makino received his task for the bottom of the second inning. The coach wanted him to guide the pitcher to throw balls on the sidelines to see the strike zone range of today's umpire.

"If there are no accidents, this pitcher will be the ace of Kinoshita Little League next year. You must take a good look at his pitching!"

While the Yoshinaga Little League's dugout was lively, the top of the second inning ended. Yoshinaga's sixth batter swung and missed at an inside corner ball and was struck out. He quickly returned to the dugout with his bat.

Hayakawa Aki took off his mask and asked about Kōshū's condition in a comforting tone, "You're pitching very well, all right into the glove. Is the weather too hot? Drink more water in between."

"Okay—okay—" Kōshū was afraid of Hayakawa Aki's nanny-like behavior and quickly rushed back to the dugout.

Lang Zhi fell back two steps, covered his mouth with his glove and said, "It's okay, I'm close, I'll keep an eye on him from behind."

Hayakawa Aki nodded, already running to the entrance of the dugout, patted Lang Zhi's back without saying anything.

Kōshū, with a water cup handed to him by his teammate in his mouth, understood his state in his heart, *'I probably need a formal game to really adapt, but that Hayakawa is too sensitive, isn't he? I'm pitching very well, yet he's comforting me with that tone...' *

In the bottom of the second inning, Hayakawa, who had just taken off his equipment, came on as Kinoshita Little League's cleanup hitter. After Kinoshita Yanagi's simple adjustments, he now hits outside corner balls decently.

The first ball was low and outside, but the umpire didn't call it. Under the mask, Makino's face became serious. It seemed that, as the coach said, the umpire's strike zone was being led by the opposing pitcher.

The second ball was again low and outside, but slightly higher. Hayakawa Aki bit on this slightly high outside corner ball and hit it to the right field sideline, narrowly reaching second base while the second baseman was dealing with the high throw.

The Kinoshita Little League's dugout erupted in cheers. Kōshū also followed everyone, crouched on the fence, shouting loudly, then was looked at askance by everyone. Finally, Lang Zhi pulled him, "Kōshū, you're the sixth batter, you need to prepare."

Without mentioning the commotion Kōshū made in the dugout, the fifth batter, Right Field Katsumura, was encouraged by the cleanup hitter's hit and swung at the first ball. The ball landed near the center field fence. Hayakawa Aki on second base quickly ran back to score a point. Katsumura ran a few steps towards second base, saw that the center fielder had picked up the ball, and stopped, retreating back to first base.

Then it was the sixth batter, pitcher Kōshū's turn. Such a big guy standing in the batter's box was very eye-catching from the catcher's perspective, 'This pitcher is over 1.8 meters tall, so tall'. Yoshinaga's catcher Makino didn't have this pitcher's hitting information, so he called a low outside corner ball to test him first.

Unfortunately, now that his new batting stance was stable, the low outside corner was the ball Kōshū hit most often. To make Kōshū's batting angle higher when hitting low outside corner balls, Kinoshita Yanagi and Kōshū had studied it for half a month. Now this low outside corner was simply feeding Kōshū.

"Well done~" Kōshū dragged out a swaying ending sound, directly scooping up the ball. The baseball flew powerfully towards right field in everyone's eyes, hitting the barrier directly.

"Home run!" Kōshū's running pace slowed down.

'Why do catchers always use low outside corner balls to test unfamiliar batters? It's too old-fashioned.' Kōshū silently complained, returning to the dugout to be rubbed all over.

Yoshinaga's pitcher lowered his head, tidying up the Pitcher's Mound, but threw a walk when facing the next batter.

In Yoshinaga's dugout, the coach's expression didn't change, but he shook his head in his heart, 'Alas, these junior high school students are still too immature.'

In the bottom of the second inning, Kinoshita Little League scored four points, and the batting order turned to the second batter.

Starting in the third inning, Kōshū slowly adapted to the noise of the stadium and the pressure that the game only started when he pitched, making Yoshinaga Little League's batters uncomfortable, constantly going three up and three down.

In the end, Kinoshita Little League won this Saturday afternoon practice match, and Kōshū also ushered in the first Complete Game Shutout of his life.

When shaking hands, the Yoshinaga Little League's coach habitually complained to Coach Ninomiya, "You old man, you're really too lucky. Someone hands you chopsticks when you want to eat, and someone brings you a spoon when you want to drink soup. Why is there such a pitcher on your team?"

"Haha, your pitchers aren't bad either, except for the mental issues."

"Only at times like this do I realize that these kids are only in junior high school. Mental state and such can't be forced. I only hope they don't lose confidence."

After arranging a drinking time for this Sunday, Yoshinaga's coach left with his team members.

Coach Ninomiya also announced a piece of news that made everyone in his team breathe a sigh of relief, "Considering that everyone has been quite tired recently, we will continue to train tomorrow morning, and have a holiday in the afternoon. You can go back to rest earlier."

Mr. Sasaki was very happy after Kōshū brought this news home. Since the two children started playing baseball together on the Little League Team, there has been little time for the whole family to enjoy the weekend together.

"It just so happens that there's an Autumn Tournament game tomorrow afternoon. Let's go watch the game together and then have dinner at that restaurant in front of the station."

"Autumn Tournament?" Kōshū's first thought was of the recently concluded Kanto Tournament.

"It's the high school Autumn Tournament. My high school alma mater has made it to the semi-finals this time."

Mr. Sasaki's high school alma mater? Kōshū only remembered that Mr. Sasaki had indeed played baseball for a long time, but if he played baseball, could he still get into medical school?

"Which high school is Mr. Sasaki's alma mater?"

"It's Seido High School in Kokubunji City. To be honest, I was just an extracurricular member for my three years of high school. Later, I was too busy with my studies and simply quit the club. I haven't participated in the activities of the alumni for a long time. This time, Seido has made it to the semi-finals after a long time, so I definitely have to go and see it."

Hahaha, I've found the motivation to get Kōshū into Seido. Hehe, forgive an author's obsession with writing fanfiction.

In addition, I am still collecting a lot of information. If you have any useful information or analysis videos, please leave a message for me, and I will study it.