"Smack."
"Ball!"
"That pitch missed too!!!
The count was one ball, two strikes!!"
"He still hadn't settled down at the start!
If a hittable pitch came..." Kominato thought to himself.
"Damn! It missed again!
I can't control it!" Amakusa gritted his teeth in frustration.
"He had plenty of time to take that last pitch too!!
What kind of pitch was he waiting for?" Takami watched Kominato's profile, his expression darkening and brightening.
"This is fine. There's no need to swing at pitches that are hard to judge, especially in the first inning!
And with a runner on third, they're the ones who should be getting impatient!!" Kataoka Coach signaled for Kominato to keep doing that.
However, even that signal put Takami on guard, making him think Seidou might be planning some kind of aggressive scoring tactic.
"Pff!"
"Whoosh!"
"Smack!"
"Ball!"
Kuramochi even symbolically took a few steps forward on that pitch, selling the deception to the fullest.
"Tch! Still no movement!!" Takami sensed trouble.
"You saw it clearly, Kominato!!" Sawamura happily waved his arms.
"Huh?" Owada Akiko looked somewhat surprised.
"Because he let that fastball go without even flinching!
That fastball certainly had the deception of a slider, but it was still strange that he hadn't moved at all!
No matter how sharp a breaking ball was, it shouldn't have been enough to leave a batter like Kominato completely unable to react!
That made Ichidai San High's battery think, 'Could they be planning some kind of tactic?'
They were taking advantage of their opponents' unsettled start, making them doubt themselves and shaking them up!
That made it harder for Amakusa to pitch!
Even though a runner like Kuramochi reaching third meant they had to be prepared to give up a run!
They also couldn't casually put more runners on base.