" Senior Chris!" Miyuki stared at Senior Chris, somewhat helplessly.
His thoughts were completely understood by Senior Chris and catchers.
Although Miyuki knew very well that even if he aimed, he wouldn't hit, the fundamental reason being insufficient swing speed.
150 kilometers is still too fast. How short is 0.4 seconds? Most people probably don't have a concept of it.
To give you an idea of how fast this ball is, the fastest a human blink takes is 0.3 seconds.
The reaction time required is just a fraction of a second longer than the blink of an eye; distinguishing and swinging the bat is beyond the curriculum at the high school level.
The result of the first round of pitching was that none of the remaining batters managed to touch the ball, even after Senior Chris and Sendou figured out the trajectory of the Ball Trajectory.
The audience members next to them had no idea what to say!
In the first round of batting, besides Captain Tetsu, only Isashiki the ball with the bat, and Isashiki even deliberately threw the ball to him to some extent.
Although Isashiki is rough around the edges but meticulous, he's not good at tactics, especially when facing Senior Chris and Sendou.
If Narumiya Mei's ball speed in his previous life was 147 kilometers per hour, it was a speed that batters like Oni-san and Isashiki could barely touch, and that was the speed of a ball that could be entangled with several balls through bad balls.
Sendou is at the level where, as Coach Kunimoto said, he swings the bat normally, but the speed of his swing is too slow to reach the ball.
Sawamura was dumbfounded, Furuya's small eyes were sparkling, his admiration overflowing.
Sendou's pitch made him see something, but he didn't know what it was.
With the first round over, Kuramochi and Shirazu will have to wait until tomorrow to face Sendou.
Don't think that this one-sided massacre is meaningless; Coach Kataoka wouldn't do anything meaningless.
Seidou's players won't lose confidence so easily; getting used to top-level Fastball will greatly improve their skills.
It's like how Mingchuan uses a 160 km/h Fastball to get the batter's eyes used to Fastball.
Top-tier Fastball are inherently deceptive; for someone unaccustomed to the speed, facing a speed of 160 kilometers per hour, let alone hitting, by the time their eyes even see the ball, it has already crossed home plate.
Playing against Fastball pitchers improves Dynamic Vision and allows your eyes to see slower pitches more clearly, eliminating sudden moments of distraction.
Similarly, hitters will also realize the importance of fundamentals, namely swing speed.
A faster swing speed gives him more time to observe the ball.
The world's top hitters probably have a swing speed that is more than 0.1 seconds faster than Captain Tetsu.
Therefore, it is difficult to survive at 150 km/h in the Major League. A difference of 0.1 seconds means that the batter loses the ability to distinguish between different types of balls and good or bad balls.
When Captain Tetsu faced Yang Shunchen, who was less than 140 kilometers away, didn't they just blow him out of the game? Were the Changeup useful? Was the Nine Palace Grid ball control grid useful? Almost useless.
It was because Captain Tetsu had an extra 0.1 seconds or more of observation time that the difference between being suppressed by the opponent and being completely crushed by them was realized.
In reality, a matchup between pitchers like Captain Tetsu and Narumiya Mei, whose pitching power is between 140 and 150, is a true clash of equals.
Don't assume that a single hit in a past life means the Captain Tetsu lost. In reality, a batter's batting average of 40% means the batter is better than the pitcher.
A Long Hit perfectly illustrates that the two players are of similar skill levels, or that the hitter has a slight advantage.
Onisan struck out again after three pitches, probably the most frustrating match he's ever had.
His swing speed couldn't keep up with the ball speed at all. If he swung too early to actually hit the ball, he couldn't use his skills against this kind of diagonal control, and he had no way to deal with it.
This was Coach Kataoka hadn't anticipated; he hadn't seen Sendou's pitches from the Batter's Box, which led to some inaccuracies in his judgment of Sendou's pitch count.
However, Captain Tetsu's aura is growing stronger, and only by facing tough pitchers can he discover his own shortcomings and make direct progress.
As the saying goes, playing chess with a bad player will only make you worse, while playing against a master, even one you can't beat, will lead to improvement with each game, and at a rapid pace, as if you've entered an unknown world and your thinking has been elevated.
Captain Tetsu knew his next challenge was to improve his swing speed and, like other Fastball adapted to Sendou, to improve his instinctive reaction speed.
Human reaction speed has limited potential for improvement after birth, and it can even be said that it is almost impossible to improve. However, people who have never experienced training have never reached their own limits.
Sendou was trained by a master from abroad (the kind who runs a training center), and the Coach Nakanishi tailored a menu for him. His reaction time had already reached his physical peak and he maintained it.
However, due to attention issues, he cannot fully utilize his abilities in actual combat. Captain Tetsu, on the other hand, is Natural Airhead and can easily concentrate to a high degree, so he can truly unleash his full potential.
The objective is the objective, and the duel is a duel. Neither Sendou nor Senior Chris intend to hold back.
In his second at-bat, Isashiki attempted to hit a high outside ball with a chop shot, but missed completely and was forced to leave the game in embarrassment.
So he got to play his second game for the Captain Tetsu.
As everyone eagerly anticipated the exciting showdown.
"Thump!!!"
"Nice shot!"
"The attacker is out!"
Reality is cruel. In the second at-bat, the inning started with an inside fastball, followed by another outside fastball. The third pitch, which also landed inside, was the first Changeup of the day.
Having released the ball too early, Captain Tetsu, who was barely able to keep up with the Fast Forkball using his hitting skills, swung it into the air without any resistance.
"Great ball!" Senior Chris exclaimed as he passed the ball to the Captain Tetsu.
" Senior Chris praised Sendou!" Sawamura's eyes were practically turning cat-like as he stood nearby.
There will be many more opportunities to face off, so it is still necessary to reduce the number of pitches against the Captain Tetsu.
Of course, whether Sendou himself wanted to clock out early is unknown.
Once the most troublesome Captain Tetsu is dealt with, the others can only watch themselves get dealt with.
During this time, Sendou deliberately slowed down the ball speed and used the ball's power and tricky Ball Trajectory to make them Ground Ball the ball in a way that caused Coach Kataoka to call it out.
Koharu's second and last at-bat of the day saw him anticipate that Sendou and his partner wouldn't throw Changeup at him. He used his feel for the ball to find the fastball, but the bat exploded instantly, and the powerful shot stopped the ball right in front of home plate. Senior Chris could have easily reached the plate with just one step forward.
Xiaochun suddenly realized that he might not have had enough Wooden Bat bats after practicing for the past few days...
Chris's pitching strategy is very clear: starting from his second at-bat, he will only throw Changeup against Miyuki and Captain Tetsu.
The first day ended No Hit, while Captain Tetsu and Miyuki both struck out three times.
Everyone else touched the ball to varying degrees, which was clearly targeted, and it was something they had just learned from the final two days ago...
This infuriated Isashiki-senpai, even though he knew it was meant to enhance his training.
Meanwhile, it seemed like the gas stove on Captain Tetsu's stove couldn't be turned off.
In the third at-bat, Sendou tried throwing Changeup at him.
Sendou's Changeup seems very easy to hit now, especially without the nearly 40 km/h speed difference between it and a straight shot.
Captain Tetsu's third K was achieved with Changeup.
Forty kilometers is a nightmare of speed difference. Captain Tetsu's bat was already at the top of his lungs, but the Changeup hadn't even reached home plate.
The difference between a ball traveling at 150 km/h and one traveling at 110 km/h is a full 0.2 seconds.
With Captain Tetsu swinging early, using a swing speed of 0.2 to 0.3 seconds, and the ball arriving at home plate 0.4 seconds later, how could he possibly hit a ball that was 0.6 seconds away from home plate?
Not to mention that it was already significantly affected by the interference from the inner and outer corners.
It was Captain Tetsu's decisiveness that made him stand out. If it had been Coach Kataoka thing before the Inajitsu, "Anyone who hesitates to swing the bat would probably have already reached home plate before even starting to swing," then he would have been right.
For high school students, this level of Fastball is so difficult that once the thought of Changeup flashes through their minds, they can only watch it go and can't even swing.
Just like the third-year summer when he defeated the pharmacist, the top Amakusa Hikaru was 150, and the average speed was probably around 145. With the back-and-forth deviations that were either low or high, plus the abnormal level of Slider, imagine how he tormented the pharmacist after he got into his form.
At this point, Sendou was clearly an enhanced version of Amakusa from that time. His straight shot was at least 5 kilometers faster on average, and his Forkball was even more monstrous than his Slider, not to mention his variable Changeup with a speed difference of 40 kilometers per hour.
On the first day, Sendou completed his target of nineteen at-bats with only forty-six balls, his effortless and relaxed style of play was enough to make a bunch of people envious.
He was then freed up after practicing striking.
Coach Kataoka's plan was to complete the match without anyone else present, not even the Seidou OB.
In the blink of an eye, time has passed, and the training targets for number five have been achieved.
Only the 6th remains, after which I must rush to the hotel to await the opening of Koshien on the 7th.
Four days, No Hit!
And it looks like there will still be No Hit on the fifth day.
The strongest Captain Tetsu, was also the most miserable, swallowing 10K.
However, Captain Tetsu's progress is the most obvious. You can't say how much each aspect has improved, such as reaction and swing speed. It's not as exaggerated as jumping to a whole level, but the overall improvement in strength is visible to the naked eye.
The one who made the least progress was Miyuki, who was targeted the second most. This guy is not really enthusiastic about being attacked now. Even if he knows it in his mind, his body really doesn't want to!
If he's expected to fight with all his might for striking power, he'll probably have to wait until the veterans retire.
The one who improved the least was Kuramochi, another member of the Bad Friends Duo. This greedy guy still wants everything. His ability to switch between hitting, running bases, and fielding has not improved, which is understandable.
The others are about the same level, but it's already quite remarkable that these players, whose skills are already well-developed, can improve in just a few days.
"What were you just saying? Haruichi!"
"I heard Ryo-san say you're too arrogant!" Sendou was about to take a walk after lunch, saw Koharu, Onii-san, and Kuramochi talking together and asked curiously.
"Oh! I was looking for my stopwatch!"
Then my older brother told me it was with Senior Kuramochi!
"Mmm! And then?"
"Then, Senior Kuramochi was playing a game where he had to stop the stopwatch exactly after five seconds!"
"A time-difference game? That requires a very good sense of time!"
"Yeah! But Senior Kuramochi couldn't press it, my older brother took it from him."
"It should be easy for Ryo-san, right? His strikes are so precise!"
"No! They said the stopwatch was broken!"
"Haha! That's Ryo-san's style! What's next?"
"Then I became curious..."
"No way! You played it too? So you pressed the button and Ryo-san found out?"
"You missed out on so much fun in just a short time!"
" Sendou-kun!"
"Alright! Lend me your stopwatch!"
"...!" Koharu was speechless at the contrast between Sendou's behavior and his usual demeanor.
However, that didn't stop him from handing the stopwatch to Sendou. Sendoh then secretly made a round to prevent any surprise attacks, especially on his older brother, who was definitely in a bad mood right now...
And then it began...
"Hmm! 5.03 seconds!"
"Hey! Five seconds!"
"Wow, that's amazing! Sendou-kun!"
"What's so impressive about that? You finished it in just two tries too, didn't you?"
Afterwards, Xiaochun realized that she had spoken a bit too soon, and the real challenge was yet to come. Then, Sendou pressed the button five times in a row, and each time it was perfectly accurate.
"Here you go!" But the consecutive successes meant that Sendou had also lost interest in this little game.
" Sendou-kun! Are you going out?"
"Yeah! I'm fine now!"
I arranged to meet Harada-san. He's been wanting to try going out with me, making it feel like a date.
After all, we're leaving tomorrow! We're going to see what Koshien our predecessors have always dreamed of, is like.
So today might be his last chance before graduation!
"Oh! Then be careful on the road!"
"Goodbye!"
What Sendou didn't know was that Kuramochi had been bullied terribly by his Kuramochi that afternoon.
After all, Oni-san had just recovered from his injury and needed to rest, and coupled with the previous minor conflict, he was given a thorough training session.
This week at Seidou was not only marked by setbacks and the return of Oni-san from injury, but the truly joyful moment was Tanba-san's complete comeback.
His high Fighting Spirit and the occasional easy Ball Trajectory he used to make have completely disappeared. Now he can be said to be the undisputed ace of Seidou.
The days of relying on two first-graders to conquer the world are coming to an end.
Moreover, after Senior Chris guidance and training, Sawamura can only occasionally make Outside Corner Ball kicks.
With four pitchers, their stamina shouldn't be an issue during the consecutive games at Koshien, and there's no possibility of them running out of energy.
Having already secured their ticket to Koshien, Seidou is naturally aiming for the top.
Furthermore, the growth the entire team will experience during the Koshien, especially the pitching lineup, will be crucial in determining how far they can go in the final stages of the summer tournament.
Sendou was surprised to find that his swing had become smoother recently.
It can be said that Seidou has made comprehensive preparations for the Koshien tournament.
All that remains is to see how much the goddess of fate will favor them.
Regardless, they all hope to return to this stadium with smiles on their faces once again.
To be truly laughable, one must at least be in the top eight.