"We'll wrap up at four this afternoon, Eijun! The four of us will go buy groceries! We'll get about three days' worth. Everyone else can practice until five-thirty. Lunch wasn't nutritious enough today, so we'll finish early! If you want to practice batting, I'll let you hit to your heart's content tonight. You all know how to use them, right?" Sendou said after lunch.
"Yay!"
Overall, before Sendou took over Akagi, aside from Sawamura and Wakaba, everyone else—including the chubby Takada—wasn't as terrible at batting as expected. They were just more like blind sluggers.
After correcting their stances, Sendou had no idea how far their batting would improve. But defense was still the priority. If their defense was decent and they got a little lucky, they had a good chance of achieving a First Battle Breakthrough.
Locking in a batting stance required a great deal of accumulated swinging. For Akagi's current level, however, finer skills like defense and bunting could improve in a short period of time.
Only after they mastered the basics and began transitioning toward more precise, difficult coordinated plays would their progress slow down. After all, reliably handling every easy ball was simple.
But building ironclad defensive coordination was not something that could be accomplished in just a few years.
Before graduation, Sendou planned to get them to the point where they could execute simple defensive coordination and work together to handle balls that were neither too difficult nor too easy.
As for offense, they would have to feel their way forward step by step. Even Sendou himself couldn't explain it clearly right now. He only had a rough outline in his head, nothing more.
"Alright, practice is starting. Get to your positions."
"Alright!"
Ping! Clap clap!
"Okay, one more ball!" Sendou called when the first Ground Ball was handled with ease. Ping!
"This one's a fly ball!" After more than a month—no! It should have been two months—of proper training, they could at least handle ordinary balls hit by middle school students, whether ground balls or fly balls.
Their simple infield coordination was fast enough too. But once it involved complicated movement, Backup Positions, or difficult coordination, everything became a mess. To put it bluntly, they could deal with ordinary batters, but they had no answer for balls hit through the field by powerful hitters.
Come to think of it, the people capable of hitting those kinds of balls were usually core players from prestigious Little Senior League teams. They wouldn't be entering Soft Baseball competitions anyway.
In other words, as long as they weren't facing a weak point, their defense could barely manage.
But that was still far from enough. Mistakes were easy to make in actual games.
In practice now, Sendou no longer told them beforehand whether the ball would be a fly ball or a Ground Ball.
As for Line Drives, he only occasionally sent a few toward Ono and the others he had already decided would become infielders.
In middle school Soft Baseball, Long Hits were rare when there were no Little Senior League batters participating.
Even after practicing for so long, mistakes still happened frequently. But there was no helping it. They could only build up their experience one ball at a time.
Through watching them ball after ball, Sendou also noticed several things that needed attention. He had always liked observing things by nature, a habit that made Coach Nakanishi grind his teeth in frustration. Sendou's inability to concentrate was a side effect of that very habit.
"Ono, don't always think about catching the ball with your glove. If there's time, move your feet too!"
"Takada, you're positioned too far back. Don't think about giving yourself more reaction time. If they suddenly bunt, with your positioning, it'll easily become a safe touch. Move up a little. One more ball!"
"So fast!"
"Lower your center of gravity and move your feet! If you think the ball is too fast, use your body to block it. Don't make risky moves. Your skill level is nowhere near good enough for that yet!"
"One more ball!"
As the only chubby one on the team, Takada obviously couldn't be sent to the outfield to chase balls. That would practically be handing the other team runs.
That was why Sendou paid special attention to the third baseman he had in mind. After all, the easier first baseman position was being saved for Wakaba. The positions his companions had originally assigned themselves had taken quite a few factors into account as well.
The only thing he could be certain of was that Sawamura definitely wouldn't understand what his companions had been thinking at all.
The current Sendou was practically a different person from usual. No one had expected that once he got serious, he would nitpick these details so relentlessly. He repeatedly reminded them of the same few points and demanded corrections. Someone who usually didn't talk much had turned into a flamethrower, his mouth never stopping.
"Hold on, I need a drink and a rest first! When I get back, I'll continue lecturing you all! Ono, you're up!" After more than an hour, Sendou's mouth was already dry.
He handed the bat to Ono and stepped aside to continue observing.
Half an hour later, everyone had gone through another round.
"Stop for now! Everyone, start meditating for twenty minutes!"
Meditation had become something like a routine at Akagi Middle School. They recalled their earlier practice and repeatedly reminded themselves in their minds what they needed to watch out for.
After meditating, Sendou led them through another round. This time, he paid special attention to Ono and Takada.
After that round, he gave everyone another ten minutes to reflect. Then he took Sawamura, Furuhashi, and Wakaba out to buy supplies, leaving the others to practice bunting.
They said they were buying groceries, but in reality, Sendou and Wakaba did the picking. Fumino came along to shop and relax, while Sawamura served as labor.
Sawamura's current regimen consisted of running and some conditioning routines. As for defense, Sendou really didn't have time to deal with that idiot. Every so often, he had Sawamura field a few pitcher's Ground Balls and do some First Base and home plate backup drills, and that was it.
They bought quite a bit of pork, beef, and vegetables. Everyone had chipped in for the money.
That was how Japanese people were. Being treated a few times was fine, but if it happened too often, the person being treated would be the first to feel uncomfortable. In Japan, people wouldn't accept someone else's hospitality at all unless they were quite close.
Of course, that excluded the overly friendly types from certain anime.
"We're back!" They greeted everyone as they entered.
"Welcome back!"
"Practice is over, so go do your homework first! After dinner, you can either do self-practice swings or batting."
"I should probably practice my swings too!" Sawamura chimed in.
"Do whatever you want. It won't be much use anyway."
"What did you say, Sendou?"
"I said it's the truth! Even if you practice swinging, you'll only be swinging at air."
"Mm-mm-mm!"
"I was just thinking it felt strange that Sen-chan hadn't picked a fight with Ei-chan today! Hahaha!"
That night's batting practice made Sendou even more certain of his earlier thoughts. There really were a few among his companions who could hit pretty well, but he still had no intention of changing the training order.
"I'll go ask Coach tomorrow."
After that, they followed their usual routine: a bath, then sleep. Before falling asleep, Sendou suddenly thought that this kind of life actually wasn't so bad.
The earlier month of practice should be changed to two months. I happened to see an old manga screenshot saying the Soft Baseball qualifiers started in early May. It's too late today; I'll check the earlier chapters tomorrow and make the changes. Time for bed. As always, please recommend and save it! Thank you!
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