Yamamori's Battle

"Su Su, are you secretly eating something? Why is your mouth moving like that?"

"No, maybe you saw wrong, Shirakawa-senpai."

"Open your mouth and let me see."

"Senpai, the game has already started!"

"It's okay, Yoshizawa and the others still have some time to get to their positions. Hurry up and tell me, what did you secretly eat?"

To prevent Su Qing from running away, Shirakawa directly grabbed Su Qing's shoulder.

"Let go of me, senpai!"

"I won't let go unless you tell me what you ate."

All the Inajitsu players watched their shortstop and third baseman pulling and tugging at each other with black lines on their faces. Finally, Harada couldn't stand it anymore, stepped out of the batter's box, and shouted at Su Qing and Shirakawa:

"What are you two doing there! The game has already started, hurry up and get back to your positions! You idiots!"

It has to be said that the captain's authority is sufficient, Shirakawa immediately wilted, and apologized with Su Qing.

Standing back next to third base, Su Qing breathed a sigh of relief, that was close, he was almost discovered. He had to find a way to get rid of the chewing gum before the end of this half-inning, Shirakawa would definitely investigate to the end with his personality.

Because Shirakawa and Su Qing's pulling and tugging delayed a lot of time, the game started quickly. Standing on the field was Yamamori's fifth batter, Takayama Kazuo.

This time, Maruse was obviously a bit unlucky, two straight balls that could have gone either way were called balls by the umpire, and Takayama was walked.

Walking a batter on a full count is really demoralizing, because it's not intentional, it's just a simple failure of the game.

If Yamagami could call a timeout at this time, that would be great. Su Qing felt that Yamagami's judgment of the umpire's strike zone was obviously problematic. This umpire obviously didn't like outside pitches, and he was still calling them, wasn't that just giving the batter bad balls?

Yamagami was very annoyed at this time. In his opinion, those two outside pitches just now were perfect, and the batter almost swung, but the umpire just didn't call them. What could he do? Could he stand up and argue with the umpire?! Obviously impossible, he could only swallow this bitter pill.

After Yamamori's sixth batter came up, he unhesitatingly put out a bunt. Yamagami naturally didn't want the opponent's sacrifice bunt tactic to succeed. He called three bad balls in a row, but the opponent didn't bunt, and the situation became awkward all of a sudden.

On the fourth pitch, Yamagami called a good ball. He thought the batter still wouldn't swing, to see if he could be walked on base, but when he saw it was a good ball, the opponent bunted without hesitation.

Feeling the ball being bunted, the batter ran without even looking at where the ball landed.

Maruse went down the mound to handle the ball, but he missed it. He didn't pick it up the first time, and when he went to pick it up to throw, Su Qing stopped him.

"Maruse-senpai, don't throw it, it's too late."

Su Qing on the third base side could clearly see the runner on second base ready to move. Once Maruse chose to throw to first base, he would definitely choose to rush to third base directly. And judging from the batter's speed, Maruse would definitely not be able to force him out.

If he threw the ball to first base now, he would not only fail to complete the force out, but also possibly cause a wild throw. At that time, it might not just be a matter of letting the batter on base, but losing a point.

Seeing Maruse put down his throwing hand, Takayama also retreated back to second base.

No outs, runners on first and second, Yamagami called the first timeout of the inning.

"It's my fault, if I could have picked up that ball just now..."

"Senpai, mistakes are normal, everyone makes mistakes sometimes, we haven't lost a point yet, there's still time."

Originally, Su Qing wanted to discuss the issue of the umpire's strike zone with Yamagami, but the words just couldn't come out of his mouth. In what capacity would he teach a catcher how to call pitches? If he was a pitcher, he would just shake his head. But he wasn't, he was just a fielder at the moment, and Yamagami was still his senior.

He should just wait until after the game and talk about it slowly.

"Let's try to get a double play." Carlos said.

Yamagami nodded. If they could get a double play, the situation would be much better.

"We're good here, how about Su Qing's side?"

Shirakawa asked.

"No problem, steady."

"Try to make the batter hit between second and shortstop. We have two people there, while Su Qing only has one. I might not be able to help defend in time."

Yamagami nodded, indicating he understood.

"Then let's play the infield in."

Everyone nodded.

"I won't. If I play in, I'll be too far from the base, the risk is too high."

Su Qing said. If he played in, he might not be able to stop Takayama, who was leading off.

"Alright, let's do that then. Good luck!"

"Good luck!"

"Seventh batter, catcher, Kamizu."

Kamizu turned to look at his Manager. Yamamori's Manager, Taiga, signaled a long series of signs. Kamizu and the runners on first and second touched their caps after seeing them.

Yamagami looked at Kamizu standing in the right batter's box. He held his bat high. Is he going to hit normally? Then let's start with a breaking ball. Doesn't he like to swing at the first pitch? Hit it into the defense!

To Yamagami's surprise, Kamizu pulled his bat back as Maruse released the ball.

"Clang!"

The baseball popped high into the air, landing in the open space in front of third base.

Maruse immediately wanted to come down the mound to field it.

"I'll get it!"

Su Qing took a few steps forward, directly catching the bouncing baseball in his glove, and met Takayama, who had started running early.

Su Qing decisively touched Takayama's body with the glove holding the baseball, who didn't have time to dodge, then transferred the baseball to his right hand and quickly threw it to first base.

But because he was too anxious, the throw was high, and Yamaoka had to jump to catch the ball.

Kamizu was also giving it his all, directly choosing to slide into the base.

The moment Yamaoka jumped, Kamizu also slid onto the base.

The first base umpire immediately knelt on one knee, held his hands out flat, and shouted:

"Safe!"

But the third base umpire directly called him out.

So, with one out, there were still runners on first and second. Su Qing was a little annoyed. If his throw had been a little lower, it would have been a double play.

Shirakawa seemed to see Su Qing's regret and quickly shouted:

"One out!"

Su Qing was already doing great to almost get the batter out after tagging the runner. This meant Yamamori had essentially given them one out for free, which was fantastic.

Besides, this game couldn't just be a solo performance by Su Qing. In the past, Inajitsu's most beautiful plays usually came from their second baseman and shortstop combo, while Yoshizawa at most avoided mistakes, with virtually no outstanding plays. It seemed Su Qing was indeed very skilled at playing the infield.

As Shirakawa was thinking, Maruse was already preparing to pitch.

Meanwhile, the runner standing next to Shirakawa had started running at some point.

"Steal!"

At the same time, the same shout came from first base.