"Outside, outside, inside, outside!
No, this was a completely unfamiliar pitch sequence!
Those two deliberately threw extra pitches. They wanted to make the sequence unpredictable!!"
Sendou, irritated by the opposing battery's pitch selection, did not lose his composure. As he prepared, he slowed and deepened his breathing, supplying more oxygen to his brain in hopes of calming down quickly.
"Crack!"
"Foul!"
For the fifth pitch, Sendou deliberately hit it foul!!
"Outside again! That made two outside pitches, one inside pitch, then another two outside pitches!
Four outside pitches out of five. Were they trying to avoid me?
At this moment?
Wouldn't avoiding me now be a bad idea?!
The guys behind me are reliable right now!!" Sendou thought as he smoothed the dirt beneath his feet. At the end of that thought, he glanced back at Miyuki and the others.
"Smack!"
"Ball!"
The sixth pitch was still an Outside Corner Ball, and it missed by quite a bit. Even Sendou showed no sign of reacting.
It was much farther outside than the first ball of this at-bat. At least on that previous ball, even Sendou's "blind" body had twitched a little.
"About time to go for a decisive victory?!
With so many outside pitches, even if he was still wary of an Inside Corner Ball, his body would react more slowly. Throw your best Ball Trajectory!!"
Seeing his senior's Signals, Ohtsuka nodded heavily.
"No outs, runner on first, a Practice Match that was basically a real-game test for Wooden Bats!
And there are reliable hitters behind me!!
My job today is pretty easy. A hit would naturally be better—I've embarrassed myself enough today already. Two ugly infield singles, two outs, including one strikeout...
I've already hit this badly, so it doesn't matter if I get out. I just need to