Seeing what was very likely the final pitch of this at-bat, Kaya Hiroshi's eyes lit up. He had finally gotten the pitch he had been waiting for. Though it was still low, this one was completely in the strike zone, rather than barely clipping the edge like the previous two strikes.
Kaya Hiroshi swung immediately, pulling the ball hard down the third-base line. Everything happened so suddenly that even the camera failed to keep up.
Only after the batter had already started running did everyone turn their eyes toward where the ball had been hit, searching for it. All they saw was Su Qing springing up from the ground and quickly throwing a white blur to first base.
This time, the throw was not high. Yamaoka did a small split and securely caught the ball. Kaya Hiroshi reluctantly ran back.
Three outs, side retired. Yamamori left two runners on base.
Once he confirmed that the batter was out, Shirakawa immediately ran over to Su Qing. He had seen with his own eyes how Su Qing had used his body to stop that Line Drive. Of course he was worried.
"Su Su, are you okay?"
Su Qing hurriedly waved his hand to indicate that he was fine. Fortunately, he had blocked the ball with his glove before stopping it. Otherwise, whether he could have gotten up in time to make the throw would have been another question. Third baseman really was not a job for humans. A first baseman could leave a ball like that to the left fielder, but a third baseman had to dive for it.
Thankfully, this was only a ball hit by high school kids, so it was not that powerful. In the pros, every one of them would hit like a monster. That would definitely hurt much more. Forget it, he should just honestly be a pitcher in this life too. Now that he had ligaments that would never wear out, he could pitch however wildly he wanted. By then, the clubs would probably be scared sick every time he took the mound.
After all, a pitcher who had thrown for years without undergoing TJ surgery was like a ticking time bomb. No one knew when he might blow up, and clubs generally did not want to keep signing pitchers like that. (Take Tanaka, who recently returned to the NPB, as an example.)
But Su Qing believed that he would land a major contract not long after going pro.
After returning to the Rest Area, Su Qing had not even had time to take a sip of water before he had to hurriedly change equipment and prepare to go back out.
"Fourth batter, third baseman, Su."
That was right. Su Qing was not rushing to the On-deck Circle; he was rushing to the batter's box. When Coach Kunimoto had set the batting order yesterday, he had put him directly in the cleanup spot. Su Qing had been stunned at the time. That was far too much trust in him, wasn't it?
"Cleanup hitter, don't embarrass our Inashiro!"
Su Qing did not need to turn around to know who had shouted that. It was undoubtedly Narumiya Mei. Only he would do something like that.
Following Narumiya Mei's shout, the other players in Inashiro's Rest Area began yelling as well. Most were encouraging Su Qing, while only Narumiya Mei and Shirakawa, those two terrible friends, were tossing out taunts to provoke him. He would not fall for it again this time!
Squatting behind home plate, Kamizu studied Su Qing just as he studied every batter. He could not help recalling his shock when he had received Inashiro's player roster yesterday.
It was one thing for Inashiro to send in substitutes and not take Yamamori seriously, but their cleanup hitter was actually a first-year! It was utterly unreasonable! Still, out of professional seriousness toward his position as catcher, he had read through Su Qing's information. He had gotten quite a scare once he did.
Though Su Qing only had two at-bats so far, both had been Home Runs, giving him a 1.000 batting average. And he was also a powerhouse pitcher, the kind whose fastball exceeded 150 kilometers per hour.
That made Kamizu put away his contempt. Although Shin Kō's relief pitcher had been the one to surrender Su Qing's Home Run, it was not as if anyone could hit a Home Run off him whenever they wanted. No one else had hit one off him. Only Su Qing had gone deep. That was a fact.
And both of those at-bats had involved bad pitches! He had even used a wooden bat! That made it even harder to imagine.
Kamizu stared at Su Qing for a long time. Even someone as unobservant as Su Qing could feel the gaze from behind home plate. Just as he was about to turn and give Kamizu a friendly stare, Kamizu withdrew his eyes.
Tch, coward. Why's he taking so long? Throw already! I'm still waiting to get back to the Rest Area for water.
Naturally, Kamizu had no idea that Su Qing was still planning to go deep right away so he could return and rest sooner. He was still mulling over Su Qing's limited scouting information.
Su Qing did not seem like a batter who particularly liked swinging at the first pitch, because in his second at-bat, he had shown no intention of swinging at the first pitch. That was not something a first-pitch swinger would do. But one thing was beyond doubt: he absolutely loved low pitches! No matter how low they were, he would not let them go!
A batter like that was simply an anomaly! In the end, Kamizu gave the sign. He truly did not dare call for a low pitch, so he called for a borderline high pitch to see whether Su Qing really liked swinging at the first pitch.
The bat moved! But Su Qing ultimately did not swing, because the pitch was a little too high. At his current height, he really did not have much reach. High pitches were uncomfortable for him to hit, nowhere near as comfortable as low ones. Once he grew to 1.8 meters, though, it would not be much of a problem. He could hit both high and low pitches.
"Ball."
The umpire signaled 1-0.
So he really was carefully selecting pitches. He would not swing at a ball, huh? Then let's try an outside pitch. Kamizu knew that the umpire's strike zone was leaning to the right today, so he could make use of that.
This pitch was still a Fastball.
Ogata's Fastball was very straight as well, so the moment he released it, Su Qing knew where it would cross the plate. He swung right away and fouled the ball off. Nice try, using the home plate umpire's strike zone to steal a strike. Do you even know who you're dealing with?
"Foul!"
Wait, didn't I lose out here too? A foul is a strike, but if I'd let it go into the glove, maybe the umpire would've found his conscience and called it a ball. By that logic, I lost out. Hmm.
He deliberately fouled that pitch off just to tell me that he also knows the umpire's strike zone is shifted to the right today? Kamizu could not help imagining. After hitting the ball, Su Qing had not run; he had merely pulled back his bat and stomped the dirt in the batter's box.
But what was the point of telling him? He would keep calling pitches that way anyway. Whenever there was an advantage or disadvantage in the umpire's strike zone, only the batter could suffer from it; the pitcher and catcher never would. Kamizu truly could not figure out what Su Qing was doing.
He gave the next sign. Since Ogata's Fastball could be fouled off so easily, they would try a breaking ball. Kamizu called for a Slider that broke inside.
Its point of crossing the plate was the same as that previous Fastball's, in hopes of fooling Su Qing. But to Su Qing, it was simply far too naive.
The release point was so obviously different. Did they think he was blind? Su Qing did not swing until after the ball had broken, then precisely connected with the baseball.
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