12 Rise Again

The weekend game against Yamamori was started by Narumiya Mei, because Manager Kunimoto had promised Taiga Manager that he would field the full main force. However, Manager Kunimoto still played a trick, throwing Su Qing into the second baseman position, while Imai Tsubasa, who usually played second base, was sent to the right outfield, and Yamaoka Riku, who would go to defend the right outfield as long as Su Qing was on the field, finally returned to the third base position again.

Yamaoka Riku was in tears, while Su Qing was lamenting the fate of poor Fujikawa.

"Don't drag me down later, Su Su."

"Don't worry, are you still not confident in my defensive skills?"

Since Su Qing started guarding third base, there have been fewer and fewer balls that can break through the third-shortstop defensive line, and Su Qing has become more and more comfortable guarding, often contributing beautiful plays.

"Second baseman is different from third baseman."

"I know, I used to play shortstop, I know how the second and short cooperate better than anyone else."

The most important thing between the second baseman and shortstop is trust. One person goes to pick up the ball, and the other seals off the runner. This cannot be hesitated. Once hesitated, it is very likely to let the runner get on base.

Shirakawa and Su Qing bumped gloves.

Inashiro Industrial vs. Yamamori Academy, Yamamori takes the first attack.

Kaya Hiroshi stood on the batter's box. Because it was a practice match, the Manager encouraged the players to use their own abilities to complete the game. Therefore, except for substitutions, almost no guidance was given throughout the game. There was no pre-match information introduction, so Harada's information on Yamamori was still the information from the last Kanto Tournament.

In the last Kanto Tournament, Kaya Hiroshi's four at-bats resulted in two ground balls towards third base being sealed off, one hit to the left outfield, and one walk.

This Kaya Hiroshi is obviously not an easy person to deal with, with an extremely high on-base percentage. If Narumiya Mei's control was unstable in the past, Harada would obviously have a headache when facing this type of batter, but now...

"Strike! Strike! Strike out!"

Kaya Hiroshi's face was ashen. He was struck out while standing. He waited for three pitches and didn't get a good pitch to hit, not even a bad pitch! All of them were thrown to the corners! Wasn't it said that Narumiya Mei was unstable at the start...

Yamamori's second batter, Kitahara Osamu, is also similar to Shirakawa, whose main task is to advance Kaya Hiroshi, who has a very high on-base percentage, to second base. His own batting strength is average, but occasionally there will be some small displays. In the last Kanto Tournament, he hit a line drive to the right outfield in his first at-bat against Inajitsu.

Unfortunately, times have changed. This time he was facing Narumiya Mei. Kitahara was a little better than Kaya Hiroshi, he was caught out. Okay, a foul catch, not as good as Kaya Hiroshi.

The third batter, Ogata Kazuhiko, stood on the batter's box. A contest between two Aces began! Unfortunately, Narumiya Mei didn't take it seriously. For him, Ogata was no different from other batters. Being able to bat in the third spot definitely had some inside story!

Harada would not underestimate Ogata like Narumiya Mei, because Ogata is indeed very strong, with a batting average of 0.650 in 16 at-bats in all games of the Kanto Tournament. How could such a batter be weak?

This time, Harada didn't start with a fastball, but instead paired it with a Slider. Ogata went straight after it, but unfortunately didn't hit it.

The second pitch was once again paired with a fastball, but instead of trying to cover it up by choosing the Slider's entry point, it was far off. This time Ogata didn't swing, but the umpire didn't call a strike either.

This pitch was relatively inside, and Ogata is a left-handed batter, so it is understandable that the umpire didn't call it. But why didn't Ogata swing? You must know that this ball could be good or bad. It was Ogata's first at-bat, how could he be sure that the umpire would not call this ball? Or did he simply not like inside pitches?

If that's the case, then let's have another one!

Harada asked for another inside fastball, but in order to prevent Ogata from suddenly swinging, this pitch was slightly offset from the previous position, but not by much. If Ogata chased after it according to his original impression, he might not hit it well.

Seeing the incoming ball, Ogata frowned, but ultimately swung the bat. However, just as Harada thought, Ogata didn't hit this ball well, hitting it foul. However, it flew particularly far, making Harada a little scared. If this ball landed in the field, it might have been a long hit.

Ogata, who had already run away, ran back after hearing the whistle, picked up the bat he had thrown on the ground, and glanced at Narumiya Mei unhappily. He didn't like Narumiya Mei. Narumiya Mei's gaze on the pitcher's mound, looking down on the batters from the bottom of his heart, was really too infuriating!

Harada wouldn't care about the batter's emotions. The more excited the batter was, the happier he would be.

Last pitch, Mei, take him down!

Narumiya Mei gently lowered his always raised chin.

Ogata looked at the incoming ball and had to swing. This ball was too low. He didn't like hitting low balls, but it would enter the strike zone, so he had to swing.

But after Ogata swung, the ball dropped extremely fast. How could Ogata not realize what kind of pitch it was?

Forkball! He was tricked.

Harada knelt on the ground, stopping the digging forkball in his mitt.

Seeing that Ogata didn't intend to run, the umpire decisively made the strike call. In fact, Ogata could have struggled a bit, but everyone knew it was meaningless.

"Amazing, Ace. You got three up and three down so easily. Look at the batter's face, it's all red with anger."

Su Qing smoothed Narumiya Mei's hair as usual. Narumiya Mei was also very proud, raised his chin, and ran down with everyone.

Yamamori's lineup was still the same as before, starting Ace Ogata, catcher Kamizu. And Inajitsu's first batter was naturally the ironclad Carlos.

Kamizu looked at Carlos, and Carlos also looked at Kamizu. Although they had only faced each other once before, they had become old rivals. Carlos was extremely wary of Kamizu, and Kamizu did not dare to underestimate Carlos.

In Kamizu's opinion, it would be best to strike out Carlos as much as possible, because with Carlos's speed, it was really possible to run out an infield hit. He almost succeeded last time.

It's best not to let such a person get on base, otherwise not only would Senior Ogata be in trouble, but he would also be in trouble.

To say something despairing, he felt that with his arm strength, he might not be able to stop Carlos from stealing a base. Carlos was too fast, and he wasn't a strong-shouldered player like Miyuki Kazuya. He could definitely handle ordinary runners, but when facing Carlos, he would definitely be nervous.

Carlos was also determined this time that he must not be deceived by Kamizu again. He wouldn't swing at anything but a fastball. He might consider a Changeup, but he would definitely not swing at a Slider.

If he hit a Slider, he could definitely hit it farther than a fastball, but he also had to have the ability to catch up with Ogata's Slider!

Yesterday, Su Qing had given them a small lesson in the dormitory, focusing on where Ogata's Slider was released from and what the trajectory of the change was like. Carlos didn't know where Su Qing got this information from, but he chose to believe it.