Training

"I'll go back and ask the captain and the others, let's call it a day."

Su Qing saw that it was getting late, so he prepared to part ways with Tada.

Just as Su Qing was about to leave, he saw Tada's face, hesitant to speak.

"What's wrong? Is there anything else?"

Tada thought for a long time, and finally mustered up the courage to voice his request.

"Can I catch Su Jun's pitches one more time?"

These days, Su Qing had been helping him practice his batting by pitching to him. Su Qing would tell him where he was going to throw the ball, and then he would try to hit it. Otherwise, he might not even be able to hit Su Qing's pitches, because Su Qing's breaking balls were just too sharp, especially his sinker. The ball speed was not weaker than his fastball at all, but the break was very significant.

Every time he watched Su Qing's sinker, he would be so shocked that he would forget to swing.

And Tadano Itsuki was, after all, a catcher. Watching so many pitches every day but only being able to hit them, his heart naturally felt like it was being scratched by a cat, extremely itchy.

When Su Qing told him that he could throw so many kinds of breaking balls, he didn't believe it and only chose to match fastballs. Now it seemed like he was really stupid! He had missed the opportunity to catch Su Qing's breaking balls.

The first team and second team's pitching practices were staggered. Even if they weren't, the first team had two catchers, so it wouldn't be his turn, a small second-team catcher, to catch Su Qing's pitches.

Su Qing only practiced batting and not pitching during his extra training at night, and every time he pitched, he only let him hit. As time went on, Tada couldn't find an opportunity. Today, he finally mustered up the courage to catch some of Su Qing's pitches after practicing batting together, but who knew that Su Qing was going to leave early? How could that be allowed!

"Ah? Now? Well, you didn't bring your gear. It's no small matter if you get hit by one of my pitches."

Su Qing was really tired today and wanted to go back to rest early, but he felt bad about refusing directly, so he made an excuse, saying they could do it tomorrow, since there was plenty of time anyway.

Who knew that Tada had made ample preparations for today and directly took out his gear from the indoor equipment cabinet. He quickly put it on.

Seeing this, Su Qing had no reason to refuse. After all, the other party was so proactive, how could you refuse?

So Su Qing went directly to the pitcher's mound in the indoor practice room, and Tada, fully armed, squatted behind the home plate of the pitching lane.

"Ready??"

Tada nodded vigorously.

"Then the first pitch, I'll throw it right down the red zone."

Tada placed his mitt directly in the red zone. Although Tada didn't show it on the surface, he was extremely excited. After nearly a month, was he finally going to catch Su Jun's pitch again?

And a smile appeared on Su Qing's face. Although he was throwing it down the red zone, he wouldn't let Tada catch his pitch so easily!

The perceptive Tada immediately noticed that Su Qing's pitching motion was very different from before. This strange pitching style attracted all of Tada's attention to Su Qing's lower body. When Su Qing threw the ball, he didn't even notice Su Qing's release point.

However, because Su Qing had called the location, he caught the ball relatively easily. Feeling the tingling sensation of the ball hitting his mitt, Tada felt extremely happy! To be able to catch the pitch of such an excellent pitcher.

If Su Qing wasn't his peer, Tada's idol would probably have changed from Narumiya Mei to Su Qing long ago.

"Second pitch, position 11."

Position 11 refers to the position of the 11th point in the nine-square grid from top to bottom and from left to right. In fact, Su Qing could throw to a 16-square grid, but for high school, the nine-square grid was enough, and there was no need to divide it so finely.

This time, Tada warned himself to focus his attention on Su Qing's release point, instead of focusing on his lower body, but his attention was still involuntarily drawn away by Su Qing's small movements.

This actually couldn't be blamed on Tada, because most hitters' habits are to look at the feet first. When the pitcher's foot lands, the ball should have already been thrown, but Su Qing's new pitching motion made Tada feel like Su Qing's foot hadn't landed yet, and the ball had already been thrown.

In fact, this was the complete version of Su Qing. When he was playing professionally in his previous life, in order to deal with increasingly strong hitters, pitchers naturally tried every means to interfere with the hitter's judgment. Pitching motions became strange and varied. Some pitchers liked to pause when striding, some liked to hook their feet at the end, and some didn't even stride normally at all.

All of this was to interfere with the batter's judgment of timing. The reason Su Qing hadn't used this posture all along was that he felt it was too much like bullying children. They already couldn't grasp the timing, and he was just adding to the chaos. Even crushing newbies wasn't this ruthless. But since confirming that Chen Xin had also transmigrated, he had picked up his previous life's pitching motion again. Hmph, in this life, he would definitely keep Chen Xin suppressed!

After throwing a fastball to find his rhythm, Su Qing directly threw a breaking ball with his second pitch, not his best Sinker, but a Curveball.

The baseball drew a beautiful arc in the air, eventually landing in Tada's mitt.

"Nice ball!"

Tada stood up and threw the baseball he had just caught back to Su Qing.

Standing on the pitcher's mound, Su Qing thought for a moment. With his control, constantly calling out locations was really boring. Might as well add some excitement.

"Third pitch, Slider."

Eh!!!

Not calling the spot?!

Before Tada could ask, Su Qing threw the ball directly.

Tada had no choice but to stare intently at the baseball. The trajectory of the first half of the baseball looked almost the same as a fastball, but Tada knew it was all a lie.

Just as the baseball was about to reach the strike zone, it suddenly changed drastically, sliding to the lower right corner. Tada's mitt followed, but he didn't catch the ball until it was about to hit the ground.

This pitch slid across half the Home Plate. If Tada had timed it right, he could have caught the ball at the edge, but he didn't, turning a strike into a ball. He was too weak.

Just as Tada was about to apologize, Su Qing spoke first.

"Hurry up and give me the ball."

Tada had no choice but to throw the ball back to Su Qing. Just as he was about to apologize, Su Qing spoke again:

"Fourth pitch, Changeup."

Upon hearing this, Tada quickly crouched down.

Su Qing certainly understood what Tada wanted to do, but it wasn't a big deal. There was no passed ball, so what was there to apologize for? Back when Yamagami first caught his breaking ball, Yamagami had called the location, and even then, he had a lot of passed balls. Tada being able to catch it steadily on his first try was already very good, at least he was very satisfied.

A catcher in the family is growing up. He wondered if Coach Kunimoto would pull Tada up early. After all, in the original story, Tada was already Inajitsu's main player in the fall of this year.