"Thwack!!"
"Finally got one out!" Sendou said with a smile as he watched Miyuki toss aside his bat and sprint.
"All right!" Umemiya shouted excitedly.
Yang, standing beside Umemiya, merely showed a reserved, delighted smile.
"He really has gotten stronger than before!"
"He's been hitting a lot more home runs lately, too!"
"Every batter who's partnered with him knows he's a dependable hitter!"
"But with Seidou's lineup, people probably paid more attention to Sendou-kun, right?"
"That's true, but he's not someone who can be completely overshadowed!"
"Even a hitter as dazzling as the sun like Sendou-kun can't manage that!"
"Thirty-eight home runs over his high school career, with five in May alone!" Shirakawa rattled off Miyuki's recent stats with an unhappy look on his face.
"You know that way too well, don't you?!"
"What about Sendou?!" Carlos added, unable to resist asking.
"Don't know!"
"Anyway, he has way more than that!"
"..." Even an idiot could see how excessively Shirakawa paid attention to Miyuki...
"He kept fouling balls off, then swung at the opponent's winning ball!"
"He really loved targeting exactly what pitchers hated!"
"Though he was copying Sendou..." Narumiya thought to himself with a wicked grin.
As far as the white-haired guy was concerned, anything he did like Sendou counted as copying Sendou—and no objections were accepted...
With Miyuki's hit, the following batters brought the final score of the seventh inning to three runs, making it 5–2 overall!
When the Eighth Inning began, Umemiya was replaced by Daikoku.
Miyuki remained behind the plate as catcher, ready to face Meishin University's fiercest late-game offensive push!
Although Tokyo created another opportunity in the bottom of the Eighth Inning, they were still missing that final decisive blow.
Meishin University's defense shut them down beautifully, ending the inning scoreless!
In the Ninth