The opposing team was from East Tokyo, and they were having an extremely hard time against Kōshū.
"This guy's so tall. His fastball is really hard to adjust to." This was from a batter who had just been struck out by an outside-low fastball.
"He's got to be 1.85 meters tall, right? Add the height of the Pitcher's Mound, and the ball drops from over two meters up into the Low Position of the Strike Zone. That's practically cheating."
The first three batters had basically been dealt with using fastballs high, low, inside, and outside. In the top of the second inning, Kōshū gave up a single to the opposing cleanup hitter. The fifth batter laid down a bunt, but it went in the wrong direction. After bouncing a few times, it was clearly rolling toward the foul line.
A bunt that went Foul Ball after two strikes counted as a strikeout for the pitcher. Hayakawa shouted from home plate, "Don't touch that ball!" If they let it roll foul, the fifth batter would be struck out, and the cleanup hitter who had run to second would have to return to first. They could have gotten an easy double play.
But Kōshū, acting on muscle memory, had no time to understand Hayakawa's words. By the time he reached the ball and picked it up, the fifth batter was already diving toward first base.
His teammates sighed and shouted in unison beside him. Faced with this completely unfamiliar situation, Kōshū panicked a little. It seemed like he had done something wrong, but there was no time to stand there and think. He could only follow his instincts and smoothly throw toward first base. But the first baseman had also been affected by what had just happened and reacted half a beat