Noobs Battling Each Other

Citizens Stadium

"It's about to start, right? Today's game!" Sendou, waiting in the shadows, muttered to himself.

Not long after.

"They're entering!"

A student's parent shouted. Both teams walked onto the field and bowed to each other, then Akagi Middle School returned to their dugout.

"The first game today, Akagi Middle School versus Nagano High School Middle School Division, is about to begin. Akagi Middle School will bat first, and the Nagano Middle School players are taking the field for defensive practice!"

The broadcast officially announced the start of the game. After twenty minutes of defensive practice by both sides, the game officially began.

"Top of the first inning, Akagi Middle School's attack! First batter, shortstop, Ono!"

Ono is one of Akagi's handsome guys, with a hairstyle a bit like Kuramochi's. He's a guy with decent athletic ability, but that's only in comparison to the little fatty and the bespectacled Wakaba. Wakaba remembers him as an infielder who had some screen time.

(After this, besides the little fatty catcher Shin and the bespectacled guy, those with obvious characteristics won't be introduced.)

"Field broadcast? It's got a great atmosphere!"

Sendou found the atmosphere interesting.

Baseball is a game with long intervals between each pitch. After each pitch, the batter can step out of the batter's box and take a few practice swings to get a feel for it. Similarly, the pitcher also has time to adjust. Before the start of each inning, the defending team has to practice their fielding and pitching to get a feel for it.

"Yosh!" Ono shouted to cheer himself up, then stepped into the batter's box.

In middle school, in the first and second rounds of prefectural competitions, frankly speaking, many are just chickens pecking at each other. The ball speed might not even be as good as the most ordinary Little League pitcher.

It's only about 100 kilometers per hour, or even less than 80 kilometers per hour for weaker teams.

Moreover, they tend to decide the game right down the middle. Nagano is also a weak baseball prefecture. But Akagi's luck is neither good nor bad. The opponent's ball speed is just the type that's less than 100 kilometers per hour.

First pitch,

"Strike!"

A swing and a miss. Ono swung and missed at a ball with a speed of less than 100 kilometers per hour.

Second pitch,

"Ball!"

Third pitch,

"Clang!"

The bat hit the ball, but the ball didn't fly far. Rather than flying, it could be said that it was rolling along the ground, but the distance between each bounce was relatively large, and the opponent's defense was even slower.

(In Cross Game, Kou and his friends played outfield baseball after graduating from middle school, and some of those balls rolled into the outfield like this, but with greater speed.)

Ono reached first base thanks to the relatively fast ground ball in the infield.

"Second batter, second baseman, Kondo!" Kondo is also considered a handsome guy.

"Is he okay? He looks nervous!" Sendou commented from outside the field.

Then, the second batter struck out swinging three times!

"That was right down the middle! And so slow. My stomach hurts! Hahahaha!" As expected, Sendou wasn't disappointed.

"Third batter, Catcher, Takeda!"

"This seems even more nerve-wracking!"

However, the third batter reached first base due to an error by the infield.

"Fourth batter, Pitcher, Sawamura!"

One out, runners on first and second, the fourth batter should have had an excellent opportunity.

"Good hit!"

"Swing!"

"Swing!"

"Cough, just a bit short!"

"..."

"Eijun, don't worry about it!" Someone in the field called out to comfort him!

"Right, right!?" Sawamura immediately replied, regaining his spirits!

"Hahahaha! Cough cough cough... Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter, urgh!"

Someone laughed and coughed, finally unable to catch their breath and even gagged a few times, eventually supporting their head with one hand for a while before recovering.

"His swing is smooth and full of momentum, but... Hahahaha!" He immediately continued laughing.

Although Sendou admitted that Sawamura's swing was the smoothest he had ever seen, even better than Harada Masakatsu, this smoothness came from the flexibility of his whole body.

The bat and body looked like a whip-like whole, but even knowing this in advance, it still made him laugh so hard he couldn't stand up straight.

"Fifth batter, Center Fielder, Omura!"

The game wouldn't stop because of this, after giving the next batter time to practice his swing, it continued.

Thwack! A solid hit, the ball speed wasn't fast, and it was also a ground ball, but it rolled past the infield for a hit, eventually scoring a run thanks to the opponent's outfielder's throw.

In this team, only the first batter and this fifth batter looked like Little League Baseball players, even if their hitting was just average, belonging to the type of enthusiasts who didn't like to practice and just played casually, that level.

"Sixth batter, Right Fielder, Aoki."

Aoki with glasses, after all, the outfield in middle school baseball is quite simple.

Ultimately, Aoki's ball, which lacked rolling ability, was easily handled by the opponent's infielders, who were new Little League recruits with basic fielding skills.

Then they started switching sides, the attacking players went off to change equipment, followed by fielding practice and pitching practice. (In the future, I won't describe it unless there are episodes.) Middle school games basically use field broadcasts to call out names one by one.

Although it was a battle of weaklings, Sawamura's ball speed was clearly higher than that of ordinary middle school students, even though he had restrained his power, it was still not easy to catch the sweet spot.

However, apart from Ono and Kondo in the infield defense, the other three were Sawamura, Wakaba, and Oyama, who often missed catches, and the others also made frequent mistakes. It was conceivable what would happen to this group of teammates who usually made people's scalps tingle with their blunders.

Ultimately, the first batter was handled by the infield, and the second batter reached second base due to an error by the third baseman.

The third batter bunted to third base, the opponent clearly saw an opportunity to win and used a tactical squeeze play.

The cleanup hitter was caught out by shortstop Ono, the fifth batter hit an infield single to score a run, and the sixth batter, Wakaba, reached base due to a fielding error.

Due to dropped catches and fancy errors, Sawamura gave up two runs. It wasn't until the ninth batter that the inning ended.

However, Sendou couldn't laugh at this point. After all, no one on his own side would make fun of defensive errors.

"Top of the second inning, Akagi Middle School's attack, number seven, third baseman, Oyama."

The seventh batter, Oyama, didn't have the same luck as before, hitting a high fly ball to first base and being caught out. Similarly, after an inning of offense and defense, Akagi's first-year group was noticeably less nervous, except for a certain carefree guy.

After that, the eighth batter, the chubby Takada, and the ninth batter, first baseman Wakaba, also returned without success.

This game was clearly a battle of weaklings. Both teams were made up of amateurs who were just playing around, and there were all sorts of funny moments. There were even several instances of ground balls with almost no bounce going through players' legs, and with someone's special performance, Sendou's stomach hurt from laughing throughout the game.

In the end, he could barely stand, so he found a relatively deserted place and clutched his stomach, laughing.

It wasn't just him; laughter echoed throughout the stands. Even some of the opposing parents couldn't help but laugh, but they still had to force themselves to cheer for their players.

Especially Sawamura, who just didn't learn. His hearty swings and misses made it impossible for people to straighten their backs.

And the batting was the same for the whole team. The opposing pitcher was clearly not in good shape. If they just stood there and didn't swing, there would be a lot of walks, but except for pitches that were far outside the strike zone and obviously unhittable, they would swing. Sawamura, on the other hand, was trying to decide everything right down the middle, which led to no walks for either side throughout the game.

This game was very ordinary, just a normal match between middle school baseball enthusiasts.