Narumiya Mei started in the weekend game against Yamamori because Coach Kunimoto had promised Taiga Manager that he would field the full starting lineup. But Coach Kunimoto still decided to be mischievous and put Su Qing at second base. Imai Tsubasa, who normally played second, was sent to right field, while Yamaoka Riku, who always moved to right field whenever Su Qing played, finally returned to third base.
Yamaoka Riku was moved to tears, while Su Qing could only sigh for poor Fujikawa.
"Don't drag me down later, Su Su."
"Relax. You don't trust my defense?"
Ever since Su Qing began playing third base, fewer and fewer balls had broken through the gap between third and short. Su Qing had also grown more comfortable there, often making spectacular defensive plays.
"Second base isn't the same as third base."
"I know. I used to play shortstop, so I know better than anyone how the middle infield works together."
The most important thing between second base and shortstop was trust. One went for the ball, while the other covered the runner. There could be no hesitation; once they hesitated, the runner might get on base.
Shirakawa bumped gloves with Su Qing.
Inashiro Industrial versus Yamamori Academy. Yamamori batted first.
Kaya Hiroshi stepped into the batter's box. Since it was a practice game, the managers encouraged the players to rely on their own abilities to finish the game. Aside from substitutions, there would be almost no instructions throughout the match, and there had been no pregame scouting report either. So Harada's information on Yamamori was still from the last Kanto Tournament.
At the previous Kanto Tournament, Kaya Hiroshi had four plate appearances: two grounders toward third that resulted in force-outs, a single to left field, and Four Balls.
Kaya Hiroshi was clearly no easy opponent. His on-base percentage was extremely high. Back when Narumiya's control had been unstable, Harada would definitely have had a headache facing this type of batter. But now...
"Strike! Strike! Strikeout!"
Kaya Hiroshi's face turned livid. He had struck out looking. He waited through three pitches without seeing a single hittable ball—not even a bad pitch! Every one had hit the corners! Wasn't Narumiya Mei supposed to be unstable at the start of games...?
Yamamori's second batter, Kitahara Osamu, was similar to Shirakawa. His main task was to move the high-on-base-percentage Kaya Hiroshi to second. His own batting ability was average, though he occasionally had his moments. In his first plate appearance against Inashiro at the last Kanto Tournament, he had hit a line-drive single to right field.
Unfortunately, times had changed. This time, he was facing Narumiya Mei. Kitahara did slightly better than Kaya Hiroshi—he was caught out. Well, on a foul ball. That was even worse than Kaya Hiroshi.
Third batter Ogata Kazuhiko stepped into the box. A showdown between aces had begun! Unfortunately, Narumiya Mei did not think much of it. To him, Ogata was no different from any other batter. For him to be batting third, there had to be some kind of inside story!
Harada would not underestimate Ogata like Narumiya did, because Ogata really was strong. Across the entire Kanto Tournament, he had a .650 batting average over sixteen plate appearances. How could a batter like that be weak?
This time, Harada did not call for a Fastball right away. He started with a Slider, and Ogata immediately chased it, but failed to make contact.
The second pitch was a Fastball again, but instead of disguising it with a Slider-like location, it missed by quite a bit. Ogata did not swing, and the home plate umpire did not call it a strike.
The pitch had been fairly far inside, and Ogata was a left-handed batter, so it was understandable that the umpire had not called it. But why had Ogata not swung? That pitch could have gone either way, and this was his first plate appearance. How was he so certain the umpire would not call it? Or did he simply dislike inside pitches?
If that was the case, then they would throw another one!
Harada called for another inside Fastball. But to prevent Ogata from suddenly swinging, this pitch was shifted slightly from the previous location. Not by much, but if Ogata chased it based on his original impression, he might not hit it well.
Ogata frowned when he saw the pitch, but he swung in the end. Just as Harada had expected, Ogata did not hit it cleanly and fouled it off. Still, it flew incredibly far, making Harada break out in a cold sweat. If that ball had landed fair, it might have been an extra-base hit.
Ogata had already started running, but after hearing the whistle, he came back, picked up the bat he had thrown on the ground, and shot Narumiya Mei an irritated look. He did not like Narumiya Mei. That look in Narumiya's eyes from the mound, the way he looked down on batters from the bottom of his heart—it was infuriating!
Harada did not care about the batter's emotions. The more worked up a batter became, the happier he was.
This was the last pitch, Mei. Finish him!
Narumiya Mei lightly lowered the chin he always held high.
Ogata watched the pitch come in and had no choice but to swing. It was too low. He did not like hitting low pitches, but it would enter the strike zone. He had to swing.
But after Ogata swung, the ball dropped sharply. How could he possibly fail to recognize what pitch it was now?
A Forkball! He had been fooled.
Harada dropped to his knees and blocked the Forkball that had nearly dug into the dirt with his glove.
Seeing that Ogata had no intention of running, the umpire decisively rang him up. Ogata could have struggled futilely for a moment, but everyone knew there was no point.
"You're amazing, Ace. You got Three Up, Three Down so easily. Look at that batter's face—it's red with anger."
As usual, Su Qing soothed Narumiya Mei, and Narumiya was quite pleased with himself. He lifted his chin and jogged off the field with the others.
Yamamori's lineup remained the same as before: ace Ogata as the starter and Kamizu as catcher. Inashiro's leadoff batter was naturally the unshakable Carlos.
Kamizu looked at Carlos, and Carlos looked back at Kamizu. Though they had only faced each other once before, they already seemed like old rivals. Carlos was extremely wary of Kamizu, and Kamizu did not dare underestimate Carlos either.
In Kamizu's view, it was best to strike Carlos out if possible. With Carlos's speed, he really could run out an infield hit. He had nearly succeeded last time.
It was best not to let someone like that reach base. Otherwise, not only would Ogata be in trouble, Kamizu would be too.
To put it despairingly, Kamizu felt that with his arm strength, he might not be able to stop Carlos from stealing bases. Carlos was simply too fast, and he did not have an arm like Miyuki Kazuya's. He could certainly deal with ordinary runners, but against someone like Carlos, he could not help feeling uneasy.
Carlos had made up his mind this time as well. He absolutely could not be fooled by Kamizu again. He would not swing at anything but Fastballs. He could consider a Changeup, but he would absolutely not swing at a Slider.
If he hit a Slider, it would certainly travel farther than a Fastball—but first, he needed the ability to catch up to Ogata's Slider!
Su Qing had given them some extra coaching in the dormitory yesterday, focusing on Ogata's usual Slider release point and its break. Carlos had no idea where Su Qing had gotten that information, but he chose to trust him.
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