In the bottom of the third inning, the Yakushi High School baseball team went on the offense.
The Yakushi High School baseball team is definitely an outlier among the strong teams in Tokyo.
The dominant teams in Tokyo are headed by the four major powerhouses: the three major powers in West Tokyo, plus one major power in eastern Tokyo.
Players from these powerful teams naturally carry some of the "elite" aura that comes with being from such prestigious schools.
This aura sounds fictional, but it is actually very clear. When these players step onto the field, their elite player aura naturally shows itself.
It's like a seasoned teacher walking into a classroom. One glance and it's immediately clear who the elite student of the class is.
Baseball players can sense this aura in players from prestigious schools too.
They carry a certain confidence and strength in their presence. Even if they don't try to show it, their superiority is quite obvious to outsiders.
In contrast, players from Yakushi High School's baseball team don't look like elites at all.
If you were to call them a finely tuned baseball team, it would be more fitting to call them a hobby club.
Everyone seems to genuinely love baseball, truly enjoying the game no matter what the situation is.
After Kuramochi helped the Seidou High School baseball team score a run, Yakushi High School's baseball team had already fallen into a very passive situation.
Most of the players couldn't even imagine a scenario where they could score a point off Sawamura.
No, absolutely not.
If it were another team facing such a hopeless situation, even if they didn't collapse, they would at least be nervous.
But the players from Yakushi High School's baseball team had no such issue. Even when facing Sawamura with their lower batting lineup, they still showed incredible fighting spirit.
"Hit the ball out!"
"It's all up to you now!"
"Senpai, this is your chance to shine!!"
"Take him down!!!"
At that moment, their shouting seemed almost like a dream.
The lower part of Yakushi High School's lineup was actually thinking about getting a hit off Sawamura?
The players in the Seidou High School baseball team's dugout wanted to ask them:
"Where did this shameless confidence come from?"
Unless it was arranged on purpose, they had never heard of Sawamura ever struggling against lower batting lineups.
But the Yakushi High School baseball team had no shame in saying this.
And when these words came out of their mouths, no one even noticed anything strange.
It was as if they were supposed to be this confident.
Things that are out of the ordinary always have their reasons!
When something is obviously wrong, but the audience thinks it's just normal, that says a lot about the situation.
"This opponent is really unique."
Miyuki Kazuya, the catcher, couldn't help but feel speechless.
He looked up at Sawamura, trying to figure out what Eijun was thinking.
Sawamura's attitude was firm.
Over the years, Eijun had played in many games and met many strange opponents.
Since entering high school and joining the Seidou High School baseball team, which is also a prestigious team, things have gotten easier.
Back when he was on the Akagi Middle School baseball team, not to mention others, Akagi Middle School's team was the biggest oddball in the world.
He couldn't remember whether it was the third or fourth round of the regional tournament.
By that point, the teams left in the tournament had already eliminated most of the teams nationwide.
That meant their level was on par with the top 1/4 or even 1/8 of the national level.
Any team that made it that far had to be undeniably strong.
Even if their actual level wasn't that high, at the very least, they should have looked somewhat competent.
After all, to make it this far, you couldn't do it with an amateur team.
But the players of the Akagi Middle School team actually managed to do something crazy like hitting the ball but not running to first base, instead running to third base.
Compared to those players, the Yakushi High School baseball team members only seemed a little mentally off.
In reality, it wasn't a huge problem.
They just got overly excited and fired up easily.
That part was a bit annoying.
Other than that, it was fine.
For Sawamura, solving these rebellious players was simple: if they didn't respect him, he'd make them respect him.
He did it in middle school, and even now, after joining the Seidou High School baseball team, he didn't plan on changing his approach.
As for other methods, there was no need to think about them unless his overwhelming strength didn't work.
Just like in warfare, the best strategy is to use ten times the force to overwhelm the enemy.
What if you don't have ten times the force?
Then you must win with strategy and trickery.
But the best method is, without a doubt, to crush your opponent with overwhelming strength.
This principle applies to baseball as well.
If it's possible to do so, then you must crush the opponent with sheer power.
"STRIKE!"
"STRIKE!!"
"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!"
"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!!"
"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!!!"
With three consecutive Strikeouts, Sawamura dealt with three opponents who were eagerly watching him.
This result seemed inevitable to everyone, but it caused different shocks to both teams.
It seemed inevitable because no one would doubt Sawamura's ability to do this.
With the Demon King Sawamura's skills, striking Out three consecutive batters was perfectly normal.
However, what Seidou High School didn't expect was that the Yakushi High School players didn't even try to stop Eijun's momentum.
This was unusual.
Normally, when a pitcher has such strong momentum as Sawamura had with three consecutive strikeouts, the opponents would try to stop it.
They couldn't just let themselves strike out three times in a row. They'd at least try to hit the ball.
Especially when they were struggling to even make contact, batters would often resort to bunting.
This was almost a tradition in baseball.
But the Yakushi High School players were incredibly gutsy. They didn't choose the soft option.
Instead, they chose a much more aggressive approach, fighting with Seidou High School's players in a head-to-head, no-holds-barred battle.
This was very unusual.
However, considering their coach, Raizou, who was known for not playing by the rules, the Seidou players didn't feel it was that unreasonable.
It was a very complicated situation.
On the other hand, Coach Raizou from Yakushi High School looked on with a somewhat complicated expression.
As the saying goes, "amateurs watch the excitement, while professionals see the details."
Everyone had been stunned by Sawamura's three consecutive strikeouts. They were all shouting and cheering.
It was no wonder they felt that way.
Just earlier, in Seidou High School's last game, Sawamura had set an unprecedented record of 21 strikeouts.
This news had already been published in all the media, including physical newspapers.
In Tokyo, this was a record never seen before.
In one game, 21 strikeouts.
This was in the semifinals of West Tokyo, and their opponent, Inashiro, was rated as stronger than Seidou.
From any perspective, Sawamura's achievement would go down in history.
Some even argued that Eijun's record wasn't just unprecedented, but there might not be anyone to surpass it in the future.
And many people agreed with this.
Because to do what Sawamura did, it wasn't just about having skill; it also required a bit of luck.
It's possible that future players could match or even surpass his skill level.
That's a possibility!
In some ways, later generations often exceed their predecessors.
But to have that kind of luck and pitch such a high-caliber game... That would be very hard!
Just yesterday, people were saying this, and today, in the first three innings of this game, Sawamura had already racked up eight strikeouts.
If this pace continued, how many strikeouts could Eijun achieve by the end of the game?
With three sets of three innings and eight strikeouts in three innings, that would be 24 strikeouts in nine innings.
'My goodness, this is really something to think about.'
At first, no one believed it.
But now, with the facts right in front of them, the Yakushi High School players were starting to look just like Inashiro's players from yesterday.
They've completely lost their minds! They actually, just like Inashiro yesterday, had no intention of stopping Sawamura's strikeouts, fully aiding in the mess.
Meanwhile, many of the players who are setting new national records are starting to curse.
"Did you guys in West Tokyo plan this from the beginning? To push this record to a point where it's unachievable by anyone in the future?"
Otherwise, why would you do this?
Isn't this helping Seidou High?
They really couldn't understand the thoughts of the coaches, Kunitomo and Raizou.
They thought these two, who had prominent reputations, were simply fools.
Sawamura set such a prominent record, and they could only serve as background players.
"What were they thinking?"
"Was their brain waterlogged?"
Many fans didn't understand either.
Up until the top of the fourth inning, the Seidou High baseball team began their offense.
They still didn't get it, continuing to discuss it.
To be honest, the impact of this was huge.
If they couldn't figure this out, the games of West Tokyo would probably face a lot of questioning about authenticity.
They didn't suspect that these three teams were cheating, because there was no benefit in doing so.
If the other team had a chance of winning, they would surely give their all to secure victory.
The benefits of winning couldn't be compared to anything else.
So, naturally, there was no possibility of cheating.
But if it wasn't cheating, then why were they doing this?
Standing back on the mound, Igarashi Sora continued to show his superb pitching skills.
Even though Shiratsu and Toujou couldn't figure out a way to deal with him, it was tough for Seidou High's players to crack him in such a short amount of time.
Even though they knew of his existence yesterday, and even knew about his abilities, one night was simply not enough for them to find a counter-strategy.
Hitting the ball out wasn't just about cracking his strategy.
Before hitting the ball, they had to get used to his 140 km/h curveball and fastball with such a high drop.
Three up, three down!
Three strong batters from Seidou High struck out consecutively.
As a rookie, Igarashi Sora's performance was enough to make everyone take notice.
But the audience in the stands, including veteran baseball people, paid no attention to him at all.
Right now, all their attention was on Inashiro and Yakushi.
After yesterday's match, many people raised questions.
They really couldn't understand why Coach Kunitomo would let Sawamura strike out so many players.
After some conspiracy analysis, some strategists speculated about Coach Kunitomo's mindset.
Perhaps Coach Kunitomo wanted to trap Sawamura with huge glory.
As long as the mighty Sawamura wavered, Inashiro Industrial High School might really have a chance.
That was one theory, of course, there were other guesses as well.
As long as Coach Kunitomo hadn't made his intentions public, these speculations would continue. Maybe one day they would really find a reasonable explanation.
As for whether the final explanation aligned with Coach Kunitomo's original thoughts? No one really cared about that.
But today, why was Coach Raizou from Yakushi High School using the same strategy against Seidou?
This was extremely strange.
No matter how you looked at it, this made no sense.
Why would Coach Raizou still do this with something so unreasonable?
"Senpai, do you know?"
The surrounding discussions were getting louder, and even the reporter Owada Akiko from Baseball Kingdom Magazine was distracted.
Her curiosity was itching her like a cat scratching, making it hard to bear.
Eventually, unable to stand it any longer, she brought up the question.
She asked none other than Fujio, a senior and her partner from Baseball Kingdom Magazine.
"Have you seen movies?"
"I have!"
Although Owada didn't understand why Fujio asked, she nodded honestly.
"In great movies, it's not just the main character who stands out, but also the supporting roles and villains. The classic characters that people remember often appear in great works. These works have one thing in common: they are seen and appreciated by a large number of people."
"This is just my guess as someone working in the media. But I still think the reason why both Coaches are doing this is just to add some hype to this game. No matter what the result is, they want people to remember this game and increase the reach it would have. They want this game to be seen by enough people and for people to realize how outstanding their players on the field are."
"In this way, when people praise the mighty Sawamura, they will also mention that the players who played against Seidou High today are equally remarkable."
Owada understood Fujio's reasoning. But she still found it farfetched and continued to ask.
"But they are all strong teams. Aren't they afraid of criticism if they get so many strikeouts in a single game?"
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