"Sawamura!"
"Sawamura!!!"
"Demon King!"
"Demon King!!!"
The cheer was orderly, with passionate music interspersed in between.
The ones from the Seidou High School baseball team's brass band department were playing their hearts out.
The school's cheerleading squad and Sawamura's exclusive fans were responding to each other from afar.
This scene was faithfully recorded by the Tokyo TV station's camera.
Those watching the game on television could easily feel the passion and excitement of the scene.
"This is what a game is about!"
A middle-aged man sat in front of the television, sipping his drink, and proudly said to his young son.
His son, who was only around seven or eight years old, was originally sitting quietly.
After hearing his father's words, his eyes lit up.
"When I grow up, I want to go to Seidou!"
"Seidou? It's not that easy. Seidou is a powerhouse."
"No, I will definitely go! Coach Yamada said I have a lot of talent and could be a great pitcher!"
"That's really good!"
The middle-aged man wore a proud expression: "Back in my time, even though I couldn't join Seidou, our school was strong. We made it to the third round..."
He bragged about his achievements in his younger years.
According to his own words, he was a key player on the team.
If benchwarmers are considered key players, then sure, he was an important member.
The game continued. After Sawamura finished pitching, the teams switched offense and defense.
Next to bat was the fifth batter, Maezono.
Looking at the first-year pitcher from Yakushi High School, Maezono felt a bit emotional.
They say comparison makes one feel inferior. A boy two years younger than him was now competing against him at the Jingu Stadium.
Considering that Maezono was just promoted to the first team last Fall, he couldn't help but feel somewhat uncomfortable.
It was precisely because of this that he was even more determined to hit the ball.
Seidou High School baseball team had analyzed this first-year pitcher.
The contact style pitcher was already quite evident.
His strategy was to let the batter hit the ball and then rely on the defense to get the out.
Every player on Seidou's baseball team was battle-tested.
They had faced such opponents before, and the strategies to defeat them were already in place.
Generally speaking, there were two ways to handle this kind of pitcher.
One way was to rely on brute force to swing the bat and force the ball out.
As they say, strength conquers skill—if the power is strong enough, it shouldn't be difficult to pull this off.
The other way was to find flaws in the opponent's defense. With this kind of pitching, the defense must have been carefully planned. As long as the key to their strategy was figured out, defeating the pitcher wouldn't be that hard either.
The second method was something the Seidou team hadn't figured out yet.
Tomobe had just appeared in a game today. He hadn't played in any previous games for Yakushi High School.
As a result, the Seidou team had no prior information on him.
Therefore, they couldn't possibly know what kind of tactics he had used in the past...
To figure this out, they would probably need to spend more time studying him.
For now, the only thing they could do was to go with the first strategy.
As long as they swung hard enough, even if they missed the sweet spot of the bat, they could still force the ball out.
This was Maezono's plan, and he carried it out without hesitation.
So, when he saw the baseball coming at him, he drew in a deep breath and swung his bat with all his might.
PANG!
The moment the bat connected with the ball, a huge rebound force ran through Maezono's hands.
Instead of being startled, Maezono felt a rush of excitement.
The stronger the rebound from the bat, the more solidly the ball had been hit.
The baseball flew high into the air and fell far towards the outfield.
It was far enough that, once it hit the ground, Maezono would easily reach base.
"It has to land!"
As he ran toward first base, Maezono silently prayed.
But unfortunately, today, luck was not on his side.
Snap!
"OUT!"
One out, no runners on base.
Seeing this, several players from Seidou immediately fell into deep thought.
Although Maezono had been out, his at-bat wasn't entirely without meaning. Through careful observation, several Seidou players had noticed a flaw in their opponent's defense.
It wasn't that Seidou's players were particularly amazing, but they had encountered similar opponents before.
Therefore, it wasn't hard for them to deduce how to deal with a pitcher like Tomobe.
Maezono was Out, and the next batter up was Shiratsu. Toujou was changing his gear, preparing to take his turn.
At this moment, Sawamura silently approached him and asked in a low voice.
"You noticed, right?"
It was a seemingly random question, but Toujou immediately understood what Sawamura meant.
"Yeah, it's strange. It's a bit like the situation we faced with Ouya last Fall. But I was intimidated by Yakushi's reputation at first, so I didn't think in that direction."
Toujou's analysis wasn't wrong. After the pitcher was changed, Yakushi's style became quite interesting.
It resembled the strategy Seidou had encountered in the Fall tournament against Ouya High School.
The pitcher relied on control, forcing batters to hit the ball in fixed areas. Then, they altered the team's defensive formation in advance...
Although the core principle was the same, because the two teams had different styles, the execution was somewhat different.
Ouya High School's strategy was like a perfected version, flawlessly executed. Even the players on Seidou were initially fooled and failed to score many runs.
Yakushi High School's players were not as clever as those bookworms from Ouya High School, so their defensive formations were sloppy.
In short, their defense was amateurish.
They couldn't change formations with every pitch, unlike Ouya, who altered their defense for every batter.
Yakushi's players relied on a few fixed formations.
This rough defensive strategy wasn't hard to figure out.
Ping!
In no time, Shiratsu was out as well.
It was as if they were putting on a clumsy trick. Even though the trick was quite simple, as long as its secret hadn't been discovered, any trick could still be effective.
Two Outs, no runners on base.
At this point, it was Toujou's turn to bat for Seidou.
Although they had already found Tomobe's weaknesses, Toujou didn't act right away.
This was also quite a frustrating situation. Even though Seidou's players had found Tomobe's flaws, it was still early in the game, and the information they had was limited.
Before Seidou could use the information they had gathered, they didn't know what this pitcher could do first.
Reluctantly, Toujou had no choice but to keep battling against this first-year pitcher.
Ping!
"FOUL!"
Ping!
"FOUL!!!"
The two of them kept exchanging foul balls for several pitches.
Yakushi's players, while continuously cheering for the pitcher, appeared to be in a relaxed mood, acting as if they were completely fine.
But these were just outward appearances. The more they did this, the more it proved that Toujou's strategy was working.
On the pitcher's mound, Tomobe wiped the sweat off his forehead.
By now, he had only pitched two innings, but when everything had been going smoothly at the start, he hadn't noticed.
Now that he was facing difficulties, he felt like he had just woken up.
He hadn't realized how much energy he had already expended. His sweat was at least double what it had been in the past.
His head was buzzing, like he had a fever.
Everything was clearly reminding Tomobe how much pressure he was under and how dangerous his situation had become.
That trick might fool Seidou, but it would never fool Tomobe, the person involved.
He knew full well how Seidou had started to catch on. Once they figured out his flaws, it was all over for him.
He couldn't delay it any longer. He needed to finish it quickly.
Having made up his mind, Tomobe turned to the first baseman, Mishima.
"Mishima-senpai, you're too far forward. Move back, move back!!"
"You little brat!" Mishima grumbled.
Although he complained, Mishima still stepped back.
At this moment, everyone instinctively focused on Mishima.
Even Toujou, who was at bat, subconsciously shifted his attention to first base.
Then, Tomobe suddenly acted, throwing the ball from the pitcher's mound.
'So fast!'
Toujou, who had just turned his head back, had the illusion that the ball was faster than before.
Instinctively, he increased the speed of his swing and barely managed to hit the ball.
Ping!
The small baseball flew high into the air.
Toujou, standing in the Batter's Box, had an expression of utter disappointment.
He hadn't expected to miss his carefully prepared opportunity.
'Everything about the opponent's play was clearly designed.'
The purpose was to get him to swing at that moment!
Because he swung too early, what should have been a Foul ball was brought back into fair territory.
Despite Toujou running desperately, the ball was caught and he was Out.
Snap!
"OUT!!!"
Three Outs and the sides switched.
Seidou High School's offense in the second inning ended just like that.
In the bottom of the second, Sawamura would face Yakushi High School's fierce offense.
Though missing Raichi and Mishima, the remaining lineup of Yakushi was still formidable.
The fourth batter, Hirahata.
An experienced third-year player, with extraordinary skills.
Sawamura smoothly struck him out.
Following him was the fifth batter, Sanada.
Sawamura continued his dominance, striking him out as well.
The last batter was the sixth batter—today's pitcher, Tomobe.
Sawamura initially thought that being placed in the middle of the batting order meant Tomobe must have some ability.
After all, Yakushi's lineup was intense, and being placed in the middle of it indicated some level of skill.
However, Tomobe's batting was completely off. He couldn't even make contact with the ball and was struck out immediately.
"STRIKE!"
"STRIKE!!"
"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!!!"
Except for Raichi, who hit a deep fly ball early on, no one after him could even make contact with Sawamura's pitching. They were all struck out.
...