21 Walk

He's truly a clever catcher, figuring out the preferences of all Inajitsu's batters in just 7 innings. You have to realize, this isn't professional baseball where the team hands you the data. In this era, especially for high schoolers, there probably isn't even anyone dedicated to collecting information. The catcher has to gather data on all the batters themselves.

So, in Su Qing's opinion, this Yamamori catcher is pretty good, just a bit lacking in arm strength. If his arm were stronger and his batting better, he might actually make it to the pros. He's referring to the Major League here; he doesn't know about the NPB situation.

Before Shirakawa could ask Su Qing any specific questions, Su Qing stood up. Fujikawa hit the first pitch as a ground ball towards Second Base, which the pitcher stopped and threw directly to First Base for a quick out.

And as the 5th batter, Su Qing naturally had to go up to the on-deck circle.

"I'll talk to you later."

Truly worthy of being brothers, they wasted almost no time, acting with great efficiency. After Harada took his position, the first pitch was thrown, catching him off guard, and he swung and missed.

However, the rhythm of the second pitch slowed down. The catcher, Mototsuka, seemed to be contemplating something, taking a while before signaling for the second pitch.

His younger brother, Shuji, quickly nodded and threw the ball.

After hesitating for so long, what's he going to throw? Su Qing was curious.

Then Su Qing saw this pitch thrown towards the same location as the previous one. Harada was also surprised, but quickly swung.

"Strike!"

Another swing and a miss. What happened?

Perhaps only Harada himself knew best, but Su Qing quickly guessed the reason...

It's the difference in speed!

In the previous two at-bats, Harada had been facing Ogata's pitches. Ogata's slowest fastball was 140 km/h, while Shuji's fastest was only 135 km/h. This difference in speed was very obvious. And Harada clearly hadn't reacted yet, but the catcher, Mototsuka, had noticed.

Truly excellent~ Su Qing once again exclaimed...

Next, the rhythm sped up again, once again taking advantage of Harada's lack of adaptation and his batting preferences. The third pitch caused Harada to swing and miss again. Three pitches, three strikes.

Kamizu excitedly stood up and threw the ball to First Base.

However, upon seeing Su Qing walking towards the batter's box, Kamizu's mood instantly soured.

Kamizu sullenly squatted back in the catcher's box. In all of Inajitsu, the batter Kamizu least wanted to face was Su Qing. It wasn't that Su Qing had no preferences or weaknesses. Kamizu had discovered that Su Qing didn't like hitting high pitches, especially high inside pitches.

But not liking it didn't mean he couldn't hit it. In the previous at-bat, Kamizu had tried using high pitches against Su Qing, but without exception, they were all fouled off. After a full 10 pitches, Kamizu obediently gave up on continuing to call for high pitches. He even despondently called for a low pitch to test the waters. But the result was that the baseball, which in his opinion was so bad it was practically digging into the ground, soared into the sky.

However, this time Su Qing didn't control his power well, and ultimately didn't hit it out, but it was still a long hit, and Su Qing directly advanced to Third Base.

How are you supposed to deal with a batter like that?! How can there be such a batter! And he's only a freshman! And a super pitcher! Is this guy definitely not a character from a manga?!

Ogata's pitches were being hit all over the place, and Mototsuka didn't think his younger brother's pitches, which were a notch weaker, could take down Su Qing. Mototsuka really didn't want his brother to get hammered, so after hesitating for a long time, he gave the signal.

Shuji was a bit dazed after seeing his older brother's signal. Perhaps to ordinary people, it was just a normal signal, but Shuji could read his older brother's true meaning from the signal. His older brother actually wanted to walk this batter?! 21 Walk?!

Shuji hoped he had misunderstood his older brother's meaning. A terrible ball was thrown from Shuji's hand. But the second pitch was also a bad ball. Shuji tightly bit his lip.

Although he had seen Su Qing blast Ogata's best Slider and then get two consecutive long hits off Ogata, he hadn't tried it himself, and always felt that he might be able to take down Su Qing.

Especially after they combined as brothers.

Mototsuka also noticed his younger brother's abnormality, and he himself began to struggle. After all, it was just a practice match, and no one would be willing to give up a walk like this.

Mototsuka secretly glanced at Su Qing, and found that Su Qing was focused on waiting to bat, just moving his mouth the whole time, chewing gum.

Actually, Su Qing could also tell that Mototsuka intended to walk him, but he didn't want to be walked on base. A good friendly match should naturally be fun, and he'd play it however he wanted. If Mototsuka still planned to pitch a bad ball for the last pitch, he would not hesitate to swing.

It was also a good opportunity to practice hitting bad balls. After all, he had abandoned his bat for almost fifteen years. Although he had returned to his youngest and most energetic self, he couldn't pick up the bat right away.

The reason he was hitting so well at the moment was entirely because he hadn't encountered a truly great pitcher yet. The pitchers he had faced so far generally had low completion rates. Their fastballs were lacking, and their breaking balls were even harder to fool people with. If he encountered a pitcher with a higher Trajectory Synchronization, he would probably be in trouble.

These days, he practiced hitting with Tadano Itsuki every night, and he wouldn't stop until he had hit the batting tee more than 200 times. It was a pity that there wasn't a suitable pitcher to feed him balls. Tada's pitching was completely useless, and he gave up after a few tries. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been hitting the batting tee all the time.

Although he might not need to swing at bad balls in the current environment, it was always good to be prepared. Who knew when a genius catcher might emerge, one who could do Framing? If he couldn't hit bad balls then, he would be finished. He didn't really like arguing with the Umpire, because arguing with the Umpire always meant you were at a disadvantage.

You're the one who gets ejected, you're the one who gets fined. Besides the momentary satisfaction, you gain nothing. What's the point?

In Diamond no Ace, Teito's Ace, Mukai Taiyo, was very good at utilizing the Strike Zone. Although the two schools weren't in the same district, who knew when they might meet?

Su Qing's thoughts had almost drifted into outer space, and the Kamizu brothers had finished exchanging glances. A Slider was thrown from Shuji's hand.

"Strike!"

Mototsuka looked at Su Qing in confusion. Su Qing seemed to be stunned, not moving at all.

Su Qing only reacted after the ball entered the mitt. He had been daydreaming the whole time, and only reacted after seeing the ball being thrown. But there was a limit to human reaction. He had come back to his senses, but it was still a bit difficult to swing, so he watched the ball enter Mototsuka's mitt.

He was also wondering what was going on. Weren't they going to walk him? Why did they suddenly throw a strike? Did they change their strategy?

What a pity, a great tool of a man was gone. But any ball was worth hitting, so if they threw a strike, he would hit a strike.

It had to be said that Shuji's Slider, in Su Qing's opinion, was a little better than Ogata's. Not in terms of the change itself, but in terms of Trajectory Synchronization. Shuji's Slider was already quite close to the fastball in terms of Trajectory Synchronization.

The account has been modified, thanks for the correction.