Lineup Set

With Sendou deliberately keeping Coach Nakanishi occupied, there was hardly any chance for the two to talk, and the second day of training came to an end.

"Number two pitcher?" Sawamura asked doubtfully when Sendou brought up Coach Nakanishi.

"You participated in a tournament this summer, didn't you? You should at least know the rules and schedule, right?"

"What's that? I don't know!"

"Uh, I wasn't expecting you to. Then..." He turned to look at the others, only to see the entire group shake their heads.

"Hey, what the hell have you guys been doing all this time?"

"Well, before, we only looked at who our first opponent was in the preliminaries, then showed up at the scheduled time to play. We never paid attention to the schedule itself!" A Shin said awkwardly.

"Fine. Anyway, we need a number two pitcher. Start with throwing and catching drills. Everyone except A Shin will try it one by one! A Shin, you'll catch!"

"Yeah!"

And so everyone began taking turns undergoing pitcher training. Although the results were far from ideal, Oomura, the center fielder, and Aoki, the right fielder, were ultimately chosen as the second and third pitchers. As for what they threw, it was all basically crash-course material.

Sawamura was then given balance training with a wooden board, while the infield defense received some additional strengthening.

Over the following days, the team's ability to distinguish balls from strikes, bunt, run the bases, and judge the umpire's strike zone improved by leaps and bounds. That was only natural, since training through actual game situations led to rapid progress.

When it came to defensive details, they could already crush some middle school teams that treated baseball as nothing more than a club activity. Though the pitching problem remained, Sawamura had to rein himself in to keep his pitches from flying everywhere. The second and third pitchers were practicing Slow Balls. Their velocity was low, but their downward angle made them difficult to hit. Combined with the team's solid infield defense, they were still worth looking forward to, even if the two pitchers' Slow Balls were only half-baked for now.

The week-long joint training with the Wildcats soon came to an end. The Wildcats also temporarily stopped training and began arranging Practice Matches with other youth baseball teams and even Little Senior League teams.

Since youth baseball and Little Senior League used infields of the same dimensions, they could play against each other. Of course, only a team like the Wildcats had the ability to take on a Little Senior League team.

Sendou knew that watching those games would not help them much, so while returning to normal training, he also increased their teamwork drills.

"When you catch the ball at third base, be faster. Don't make me say it over and over again. And when you throw, keep the Ball Trajectory low, so it'll be fast enough!"

"A Shin, call out every ball. Where to throw can get very complicated because of the runners. That old man taught you too, right? How to direct the defense based on the runners' positions. Now is the time to practice. Don't wait until a game. If you hesitate or make a bad call then, we could give up runs."

"I understand!"

"That's it!"

"Alright! Oomura and Aoki, go to the Bullpen with A Shin. Everyone else, take a break first."

Baseball training was repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition.

"That's enough for today! Everyone's fundamentals are already pretty good. Starting tomorrow, we'll make adjustments. Five kilometers in the morning, then throwing practice. We haven't done much of that lately. Start with the distance from home plate to first base, then move on to direct throws from the outfield to home plate. That'll take half an hour. Then bunting for another half hour. After that, all remaining time will be defensive practice and baserunning drills! Get ready to crawl home!!!"

"We won't lose! Bring it on!!!" Sawamura immediately shouted.

The others were quickly fired up by Sawamura's passionate roar.

Damn, that's really fiery, Sendou thought.

"In half a month, we'll be heading back. Before then, I'll have that old man arrange Practice Matches with teams in Tokyo that are still active in their clubs. A week from now, how about we all go camping at the beach for three days and two nights? Then we'll come back, rest up, and prepare for the Practice Matches."

"Hooray!!! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!" Everyone shouted together this time.

"We're going to the beach! Hooray!" After shouting along with everyone else, Sawamura yelled once more.

"Not right now, idiot!"

"Is that so?" Sawamura said innocently.

"You weren't listening at all again, you idiot!"

The day's exhaustion was swept away amid the noisy bickering.

"Damn it! Whether I Push Hit or pull the ball, it always feels like there's strength I can't release. Is my batting stance too bad?" That night, while the others were still doing independent practice, Sendou muttered to himself as he flipped through materials on batting in his room.

"This won't work, it's such a hassle to practice... And this one too. Isn't there some batting method that's both easy to learn and useful?" Lazy as he was, Sendou still wanted to hit that pitch that had practically bewitched him, and once again fell into a dilemma.

In the end, Sendou failed to find what he wanted. He could only give up on improving his batting stance and continue using the basic stance. He had always used an American Style Lifting Hit.

Naturally, it was not the same as Maezono's uncontrolled uppercut. American Style Lifting Hits were meant to send the ball farther. As Major League batters began hitting these high, deep balls, the importance of outfielders rose proportionally.

Likewise, Coach Nakanishi did not teach everyone on the Wildcats that way. This style generally did not suit Asians, who were better suited to hitting directly through the ball rather than swinging upward from below. After all, it demanded tremendous strength and whipping power. Even Suzuki Ichiro and Coach Nakanishi had not used this style during their playing days.

Estimating the time and heading downstairs early, Sendou listened to everyone chatting as they entered the bathhouse, then took his bat and left. Fumino appeared at the field right on time as well.

"You don't need to follow me every day, do you?"

"The stars here are beautiful!"

"Is that so? Then do whatever you like."

"Akila! You've been coming to hit every day lately. Do you think baseball is fun now?"

"I don't know! If there really were a pitcher like that in the same era, maybe it would be fun. The excitement of facing a powerful opponent is the best. Who would like a game where you could win easily?"

"That's true."

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