Akagi Middle School Baseball Club Sets Sail

The entire match lasted for more than two hours and can be said to have been wonderful.

"Thoughts?" Sendou asked after watching.

"So amazing!"

"Alright!" Sendou had already given up discussing with this group of people.

"I want to confirm something now, the goal of the Akagi Middle School Baseball Club!... Is it victory? Or happiness?"

"What do you mean?" Sawamura asked, puzzled.

"With Akagi Middle School's current situation, if you want to win, you have to give up your previous happy-go-lucky baseball. So, what's your answer?"

"It's victory! I want to win, I want to take everyone to the Nationals!"

"Since Ei-chan has said so! Right?"

"Yes, we also choose to want to win!"

"Therefore, you don't mind even hellish training? The answer is?" Sendou asked again.

"Yes!!!"

"Yosh! I will be strict with you! Although I can't guarantee that I can take you to the Nationals, in return, I will let you taste the taste of victory."

"So, first of all, let me tell you the meaning of this match! You have seen the lineup of this match, Gunma Prefecture Hakuryu High School against Osaka's Kiryu High School, and Hakuryu's style of play will be the basis of our future style of play.

Of course, we can't perfectly replicate their style of play.

What we must first do is ensure a solid basic defense. We don't need to do so much coordination in a short time, nor do we need to master so many tactics. We only need to complete the most basic task of getting outs, not making low-level mistakes, and things like crotch balls must never happen again."

"Then, in terms of offense, everyone is prohibited from swinging for the fences without my permission! Ah, Eijun, you don't matter!"

"Ah?" Several people exclaimed.

"Why?" Someone's roar was mixed in. Obviously, Sendou's tone meant that he could not care less about his hitting reliability.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing?" Seeing Sendou's gaze, everyone hurriedly shook their heads and waved their hands.

"Eijun, your swing is the soul of our Akagi Middle School! Without your swing, my life would become dark and lose its fun!" Sendou suddenly changed his face and teased Sawamura.

"Mmmph!"

"It appeared, the puppy-style bared teeth!... Then it's base running!"

Sendou's speed of changing faces was so fast that the others were dumbfounded. The first half of the sentence was still teasing, and he instantly started talking seriously, making it impossible for Sawamura to talk back. Afraid of disturbing Sendou's planning, he could only look at Sendou with infinite resentment.

"Then it's base running! Everyone must learn Hakuryu's style of stealing bases. The timing of stealing bases, the speed of base running, and the training of explosive power from zero to full speed are the most important things in our team's offense.

After that, it's the cooperation between batters and runners, and between runners and runners. We must learn to constantly put pressure on the opponent's defense on the bases, forcing them to make mistakes.

Once there is pressure, no amount of training will be useful. Once the mentality is disturbed by pressure, their defense will be overwhelmed by the constant pressure, and the defensive system will collapse. Oh, right, you should lose weight!" The last sentence was addressed to the little fatty.

"Hahaha!"

"Then there's bunting. All of you must master the bunting technique and be proficient in distinguishing balls from strikes. Since the hitting is poor, then use the way of selecting pitches to get on base, combined with the runner's pressure to cooperate and score points. This is also what I said, the reason for giving up happy baseball."

"Next summer, we need to at least be able to select pitches and bunt, and the batters and runners need to be able to complete simple plays. Base runners need to learn how to find the right timing to start running. As for more advanced base running tactics to apply pressure, we'll talk about that later."

"On the defensive side, I don't expect coordinated plays or preventing all runs, but we need to avoid making simple mistakes and be able to handle simple ground balls and fly balls. We need to reliably secure the easy outs that are given to us."

"As for swinging and hitting, we'll talk about that after we have some competitive experience."

After a simple bit of teasing, Sendou explained his summary and ideas for the week to everyone in a very simple and clear manner. He even repeated himself quite a bit, afraid that those who couldn't even remember the basic rules wouldn't understand.

"Did Sen-chan think of all this?"

"Amazing!" After listening to Sendou's brief explanation, the others chimed in.

"Looks like you guys accept it. Well, don't think it's easy just because I made it sound simple. Practicing this will be very boring, tasteless, and tiring, so you better be prepared.

Starting tomorrow and lasting for a month until summer vacation, all practices will continue until it's so dark you can't see the ball. All training will also be focused on defensive practice. Also, on game days, Wakaba and I will record videos, and we'll notify you all to watch important games together."

"Okay!"

"Right, we'll have an intensive training camp when summer vacation starts. At that time, this guy will be your bunting coach!" Sendou said, putting his right arm around Sawamura and pointing at him with his left hand.

Sendou wouldn't forget the existence of the bunting prince.

"Eh?" Everyone exclaimed in surprise, especially Sawamura, who made the loudest noise.

"Don't worry, you just need to imitate his movements. This guy isn't very smart and can't teach people."

"Hahaha!" Everyone immediately laughed.

Only one person wasn't happy at all.

What everyone didn't know was that Sendou knew Sawamura's problem with hitting was that his swing was too fast, and he didn't have Sendou's ability to accurately find the right timing with just one glance at the ball.

However, he didn't want to interfere too much, fearing that he would hinder Sawamura's growth. The others were destined to have no chance at a professional career, so he could train them as he pleased.

After speaking, he took out a few cups and poured juice for everyone. (They had been using teacups before.)

"For the future of Akagi Middle School, cheers!" Sawamura said. No one was more suited to say that.

"For the future of Akagi Middle School, cheers!" the others said in unison. Only Sendou silently raised his cup without saying a word. Well, it felt too embarrassing to say it out loud.

"We must go to the Nationals!!!" In the end, only Sawamura was left shouting wildly.

"Hahahaha!" Everyone burst into laughter, and Sendou shook his head and smiled.

Sendou wondered if he would also become very embarrassing in the future, spending all day with these chuuni baseball teenagers!

But, no matter what, the Akagi Middle School Baseball Club officially set sail starting today!