The Game Against Yamamori Ends

Unfortunately, that hit did not become a Home Run. Instead, it struck the left-field wall. Su Qing stopped at second base, clapped his hands, removed his leg guard and batting gloves, and handed them to an unknown third-year senior who came over to help him.

Su Qing did not stray far from the bag. He knew his own limits; with his speed, making it to third was definitely out of the question. He looked again at Coach Kunimoto, but Coach Kunimoto gave no signal, and Yamaoka Riku, who had stepped into the batter's box, did not square to bunt. So Su Qing waited.

Seeing that Su Qing was not far from the bag, Ogata merely turned around symbolically. He did not even throw a pitch, simply warning Su Qing not to attempt a steal.

Yamaoka Riku ultimately hit a grounder toward first base, sending Su Qing to third. A run seemed within reach, but then Yamagami gifted the other side a strikeout. The excellent situation vanished in an instant.

Hirai Tsubasa failed to get a hit as well, and Su Qing had no intention of moving. He called out for Shirakawa to bring him his glove, since he was not coming off the field. In the end, he still did not get a single sip of water. How miserable. Truly miserable.

Over the next two innings, Yamamori's lineup completely figured out Maruse's pitching, scoring three runs in total. Inashiro's batting lineup finally came through as well, and with Su Qing's help, they scored their first run of the game. Su Qing's batting average also held steady at 1.000.

In the top of the fifth, Coach Kunimoto made a series of substitution requests. First, he replaced Maruse with Kuwahara. Then, to Su Qing's surprise, he was also taken out of the game and replaced by a reserve third baseman.

Coach Kunimoto had clearly decided to let loose completely. The expression on Taiga Manager's face next door was extremely unpleasant. In his eyes, Coach Kunimoto was simply going too far. Still, he did not rashly pull Ogata from the mound. He merely gathered his players and told them to teach Inashiro a harsh lesson.

Thus, as soon as Kuwahara took the mound, Yamamori went after him relentlessly. He gave up five runs in three innings. In the bottom of the seventh, Yamamori also brought in a reserve pitcher. It was none other than Kamitari's younger brother, Kamitari Shuji...

After seeing his younger brother take the mound, catcher Kamitari Mototsugu became even more fired up. With his pitch calling, Kamitari Shuji actually gave up no runs over two innings...

But in the bottom of the ninth, Coach Kunimoto also felt that the score was too ugly. He gathered his players and gave them an encouraging speech. Sure enough, after that pep talk, it was as if they had received a buff. Still, Su Qing was more inclined to believe that Inashiro's batters had figured out Kamitari Shuji's pitching. Inashiro's lineup was no joke, after all. They had already seen him once. If they still could not hit fastballs around 130, they might as well go bash their heads into a block of tofu.

In the final inning, Inashiro scored four straight runs, and the game ended 11–5. Inashiro's Kanto Tournament journey had come to an end. They had gotten exactly what they asked for.

After the game, Taiga Manager pulled Coach Kunimoto aside and said quite a lot to him. The two had actually been longtime rivals. Taiga Manager gave Coach Kunimoto a thorough dressing-down, accusing him of not taking them seriously and fielding players recklessly. Coach Kunimoto explained things amiably. Su Qing had no idea whether Taiga Manager believed him, but he did know that the two coaches arranged a practice game for after the Kanto Tournament.

Taiga Manager hoped that Inashiro would go all out when the time came, and Coach Kunimoto agreed. That meant the two teams would still play another game. Interesting. Very interesting.

Inashiro's supporters had no desire to criticize the players. After all, this was entirely Coach Kunimoto's fault, and given his prestige, they could not exactly curse him out. In the end, they could only encourage the players and hope that Inashiro would win the Summer Tournament and advance to Koshien.

Only a few days after Inashiro's Kanto Tournament journey ended, Golden Week arrived—the time when everyone was arranging practice games everywhere in preparation for the coming Summer Tournament.

That evening, Tadano Itsuki was once again accompanying Su Qing in extra training. But Su Qing felt that it should have been the other way around. Clearly, he was the one accompanying little Tadano for extra training. Yet because he was obviously the stronger one, everyone believed that Su Qing had dragged Tadano Itsuki along to practice pitching with him.

After the two official catchers of the First String heard that rumor, neither could sit still. Harada was a little better off, since he shared a dorm room with Su Qing and understood the situation somewhat. Yamagami, however, directly dragged Su Qing off to practice pitching. After all, what sense was there in having the main pitcher go find a Second String Team catcher to practice with?

Su Qing could only say that Yamagami had completely misunderstood. He was helping Tada practice batting, not asking him to practice pitching with him!

"You have a game this weekend, right?"

"Yes, against Sosei."

"Good luck! I'll come watch your game when the time comes."

"Huh? I remember Su Jun has a game too."

"Huh?! How come I didn't know about that?!"

"The First String Team seems to be traveling for a practice game. Senior, you didn't know?"

Su Qing shook his head blankly. These past few days, he had been glued to Narumiya Mei, adjusting his Trajectory Synchronization. Thanks to the SC System, Su Qing had finally found the key reason Narumiya Mei was unstable at the start of games.

Narumiya Mei's pitches were all over the place at the beginning. The release point was different with every pitch, let alone the early trajectories of his fastballs and breaking balls.

After pitching for a while, Narumiya Mei became far more stable, but the Trajectory Synchronization between his fastballs and breaking balls was still difficult to align. In Su Qing's view, that would never fool a batter.

Wasn't that practically telling the batter outright, I'm throwing a breaking ball? So over the next few days, Su Qing essentially transformed into a pitching coach. He watched Narumiya Mei pitch, and the moment he spotted a problem, he immediately corrected it.

There had already been some initial results. At the very least, the release point had stabilized. The Trajectory Synchronization between the fastball and breaking balls would still need to be polished gradually. Su Qing was actually looking forward to the official practice game. He really wanted to know whether his training had worked, and whether Narumiya Mei would still be unstable at the start.

If Narumiya Mei's weakness of starting poorly disappeared, would he not be invincible in Ace of Diamond? After all, later on, scoring off Narumiya Mei was practically harder than climbing to heaven. Su Qing could not help wanting to see Seido's batters rendered helpless against Narumiya Mei.

Oh, right. The information he had asked Harada to investigate had also come back. That outfielder who had suddenly appeared at Seido really was his sworn enemy, Chen Xin!

And Seido's former main catcher had somehow miraculously recovered. He was already able to play in games.

If Chen Xin was not behind this, Su Qing would never believe it!

If it was Chen Xin, then Narumiya Mei's chances against him were still somewhat uncertain. No, he had to strengthen Narumiya Mei even further. He also needed to fix his fastball! Throwing such straight pitches was practically handing Chen Xin a Home Run!

Also, with the help of Su Qing's luxurious nutritional meals, both Su Qing and Narumiya Mei had grown another centimeter! Narumiya Mei was utterly indignant about it! Why did Su Qing have to grow too whenever he grew? The fact that Su Qing always remained one centimeter taller than him was simply infuriating!