Ace of Diamond: Return of the Pitcher

For the first time, Senzo felt a hint of jealousy toward the pitchers of Seidou High School.

Looking at the small Kominato Haruichi who had stood up like a triumphed lion, Senzo felt rather speechless.

After hitting the ball just now, he had silently cheered for himself many times in his mind.

On the surface, it appeared to be just a simple swing, hitting Furuya's pitch.

But what no one could know was how much mind work had occurred before this moment.

First, he had to see through the intentions of Seidou's battery.

It was precisely because he realized that Seidou's battery had changed their previous pitching rhythm that Senzo made the decisive first swing.

He guessed that Seidou's battery was highly likely to want to get ahead in the count with the first pitch.

So, without hesitation, he swung at the first pitch.

It was also a gamble.

Fortunately, he won the gamble!

He hit the ball, and by sheer luck, it found a gap in the defense.

No matter how you look at it, this was a 90% sure hit.

Although Senzo wasn't hard-working, his love for baseball was genuine.

He had played countless baseball games growing up. He knew exactly what kind of pitch could result in a hit.

Some hits depended on the opponent's defense, while others relied on luck...

Some hits were 100% certain.

Like the ball, Senzo had just hit. According to his own experience, that pitch was in the 100% hit category.

The speed and angle of the hit were perfect, and there was no reason why it shouldn't have been a hit.

But that ball was abruptly stopped by someone.

Kominato Haruichi, the second baseman, had a small build. But at that moment, holding his mitt, he looked unusually formidable.

A beautiful hit, and a score.

Just like that—it flew!

All because of that second baseman, who wasn't particularly tall.

All with sheer spirit!

If he had teammates like that behind him, Senzo would even feel confident about playing a full clash game against Seidou.

Unlike his own teammates, who, despite looking tall and impressive, were utterly lacking in baseball skills…

It was truly frustrating to compare people. Some of them were better off discarded.

Senzo was speechless and could only leave the field dejectedly.

With Kominato Haruichi securing the last Out, Seidou High School completed their defense for this inning.

Three Outs, offense and defense exchange!

The score between the two sides was only 3-1.

When Kominato returned to the dugout, his teammates treated him like a hero.

One by one, they scrambled to pour water for Kominato Haruichi.

Especially the few freshmen, whose eyes were wide open in amazement.

What was the biggest gap between them and their upperclassmen? It was probably their defensive skills.

Compared to Kominato Haruichi and the others, the freshmen's defense was as immature as that of children.

This gave them a deep sense of crisis.

Initially, they didn't care much about their seniors. They thought their batting ability had clearly surpassed that of the seniors, and it would be a natural matter to replace them.

But now, it seemed they had been sitting in their own little world, ignorant of the bigger picture.

Let's not even mention other things. The defensive skills that Kominato Haruichi had just demonstrated were something none of them could match.

When the ball flew, Kominato was at least four or five meters away from the landing point.

A baseball flies around 20 meters in a split second. At that speed, it would take at most one second.

In that second, the body naturally responds and can accurately catch the ball.

This was not something just anyone could do.

"Without a lot of practice! Without learning to make your body move before your brain can process it, it's absolutely impossible to do this."

Even Nishiyama Kibo was shocked when he saw it.

What kind of harsh training had his seniors undergone in private to bring their bodies to this level?

They had turned defense into a conditioned reflex.

Otherwise, if their eyes saw the ball, their brain would process it and make a defensive move, but there would be no time to stop the ball.

Furuya's eyes were also full of gratitude. However, his poker face didn't reveal much expression.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, it was Seidou High School's turn to bat.

Miyuki Kazuya, wearing glasses, was the first to step into the batter's box.

With the help of the fielders, Furuya's performance hadn't been bad. As his partner, Miyuki felt it was necessary to help Furuya score some points right now.

To ease Furuya's pressure.

According to the original plan set by Coach Kataoka and the coaching staff, Furuya was the main pitcher for today's game, and he was supposed to pitch at least six innings.

If the game was already decided by then, other substitutes would get their chances.

If the game was still in a stalemate, Furuya might have to continue pitching...

In this case, to make it easier for his partner, and as the team's fourth batter and main catcher, Miyuki felt it was necessary for him to step up now.

He raised the bat high, ready to hit the ball no matter what.

Ping!

The ball was hit and rolled toward first base.

The first baseman received it smoothly into his mitt.

"Out!!"

Miyuki Kazuya, who had been full of energy, was easily retired.

After being retired, the young man was a little embarrassed.

He raised his hand apologetically and said to his teammates, "Sorry, sorry, I was careless!"

Sawamura wasn't as optimistic as Miyuki.

When Miyuki said he was careless, Sawamura absolutely didn't believe it.

In the past, when there were no runners on base, Miyuki's performance had indeed been a bit poor.

But since becoming the team's fourth batter and captain, his little flaw had improved a lot.

Even now, with no one on base, Miyuki could still show his strength when hitting.

His failure to hit the ball this time was precisely because the opposing pitcher was no ordinary pitcher.

Sawamura had also hit an outfield fly before!

And let's not forget the line-drive ball he hit earlier.

That line drive ball helped Sawamura get a timely hit, but he had to admit that he didn't hit it perfectly.

If he had struck the center of the ball, with the force he used, that ball would have definitely gone for a home run.

It wouldn't have just been a high-fly ball.

In this way, Sawamura had already been frustrated by this pitcher twice.

Senzo Shiki!

This was a more formidable pitcher than they had thought earlier.

That said, the team he was with wasn't particularly strong. If Senzo was on another team, his ability would certainly be at a higher level than this.

"This is a bit tricky!"

Sawamura muttered.

The following developments turned out to be almost exactly as Sawamura had imagined.

Furuya and Shiratsu were both retired in succession!

Furuya was a typical blind cannon—once the ball was hit, it soared into the air like a rocket, flying straight up.

The ball flew very high!

Under the sun, people could no longer see the baseball.

Unfortunately, this didn't amount to much. The ball, flying so high, didn't travel far and was eventually caught by the shortstop.

Shiratsu seemed to have fallen into a trap, hitting a flat grounder directly to third base.

One by one, the Seidou High School batters were sent back.

On the other hand, the players from Tobuyasu High School, led by their Ace pitcher Senzo, displayed a surprisingly strong fighting spirit.

Their performance improved with each passing moment!

"Two consecutive innings with three outs!"

In Seidou's dugout, the assistant coach looked at his records in disbelief.

If these records hadn't been written by him, he would definitely have scoffed if someone had shown them to him.

What a joke! How could Seidou High School's top six batters fail to even get a single hit?

Even if something like this occasionally happened, it would definitely be in the first round of an encounter.

By the time of the second round, the batters should already have a good sense of the pitcher on the mound.

It was normal for Seidou High School not to score for the time being.

But to say that they couldn't even get a hit—that was a serious problem!

Seidou's team realized the gravity of the situation.

The Coach, wearing sunglasses in the dugout, nodded slightly and then said, "Wait a little longer!"

The result of waiting didn't turn out well.

In the top of the fifth inning, Tobuyasu High School was on offense.

Furuya had completely altered the aggressive pitching rhythm he had been using earlier.

It was probably the perfect defense by Haruichi that gave him strong confidence. At that moment, he suddenly changed his approach, focusing on control with speed as a supplement.

Even though his pitching velocity was slightly reduced, Furuya's pitches were still over 150 km/h.

At that pitching speed, there was no need for breaking balls. As long as he could consistently throw Strikes in the strike zone, it would be enough to overwhelm the opponent.

In this situation, if he could also throw low Strikes in the strike zone...

Tobuyasu's batters would have no way of dealing with him.

Just making contact with Furuya's pitches drained all their energy.

They simply couldn't hit these types of pitches properly.

Thus, a very peculiar scene unfolded on the field, where the baseball was hit over and over again, but each time, the defense easily caught it.

In this way, Seidou High School easily secured three Outs and completed their defense in the fifth inning.

In the bottom of the fifth inning.

Facing the fierce offense of Seidou High School's lower-order batters, Senzo's performance remained as strong as ever.

With clean and efficient pitching, he retired the batters in order.

Seidou's entire second-round offense failed to get a single hit off Senzo.

At this point, the players of Seidou High School finally realized that their opponents were likely even stronger than they had imagined.

And so, the game unknowingly reached the sixth inning.

In Seidou High School's dugout.

The Coach, Kataoka, who had been wearing sunglasses and acting enigmatic, finally spoke up.

Clearly, during that period, Kataoka, as the Coach of Seidou High School's baseball team, hadn't been idle.

He had been carefully considering Tobuyasu High School's weaknesses.

If this were a formal tournament, Seidou would have already gathered detailed information about their opponents. Kataoka and the coaching staff would have certainly prepared multiple strategies.

But in a practice match like this, there was no such powerful intelligence support.

This really tested the whole team's—including the Coach's—ability to adapt and strategize.

Kataoka hadn't been the best at this, but he realized his shortcomings and had spent the time learning and improving.

Now, he had already made some progress.

For example, through several innings of observation, he had pinpointed Tobuyasu's biggest issues.

"Their fielders are too weak!"

"And their pitchers are too strong!"

"It's like putting a sports car engine in an antique car. Even if the engine works hard, the other components can't keep up."

"Don't think about hitting for power!"

"The more we rush to end this battle, the more we're likely to fall into their carefully set trap. At this point, we should change our approach and break through their trap with our superior strength."

"We don't need to swing for home runs! Focus on getting base hits, actively aiming for the next base. Once their pitcher and defense start to fall apart, we'll have the chance to overwhelm them with a single hit!"

With this, Kataoka spoke with fiery enthusiasm, leading the battle from the dugout.

"YES SIR!!"

The Seidou players responded one after another.

They weren't foolish. In fact, they had already gradually noticed the opponent's problems.

It's just that no one had brought it up before, and everyone had merely suspected it on their own.

Now that Kataoka had pointed it out, they all suddenly understood.

It seemed that it wasn't just them who had sensed something was off.

"Let's begin the offense!"

Sawamura took out his bat, put on his batting gloves, and said with a calm tone.

…

T/N: That's it for Today.

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