Narita's infielders gathered on the pitcher's mound, and the classmates who listened to the call told them the supervisor's instructions, and then cheered each other together before they dispersed and returned to their respective defensive positions.
Narita's catcher Kawamura patted pitcher Kawamura on the back and didn't know what he said to him. After the two met and smiled, Kawamura trotted back behind the plate and squatted down again.
Kentaro Matsuda, the eighth pitcher at Seido, waved his bat and stood in the batter's box. Naoya Kuraza, the runner at second base, also stepped away from the base bag and looked as if he was about to sprint to third base.
Narita's pitcher Kawamura was affected by this. He looked back at Naoya Kuraza who was about to steal the base, made a fake check, and then followed the catcher's legendary signal, swung his arm and threw the baseball in his palm toward home plate.
"call out!"
"Whoosh!"
"Bang!"
“strike.“
Kentaro Matsuda, whose swing failed, couldn't help but clenched the bat with both hands, and his expression became more serious.
The current number of balls is two good balls and two bad balls. You must see the next ball clearly before swinging.
"call out!"
"Whoosh!"
"Bang!"
“strike.“
The baseball that flew quickly from the pitcher's mound to the eyes only had time to leave an afterimage on the retina, and then quickly rushed into the catcher's open sleeve.
“strike out.“
The referee shall make the appropriate ruling.
"Three outs, exchange offense and defense."
Kentaro Matsuda swung his bat with some annoyance, walked out of the batting area, and walked straight back to Aomichi's rest area.
"The last goal was a bit impatient." Director Kataoka commented, and then said to everyone who was preparing to go on defense: "The opponent scored 2 points in one breath by us, and now he should be holding his breath and trying to get away from us. Score points here, defend this game and dampen their momentum."
"yes."
Yagami trotted all the way to the pitcher's mound, stomping on the dirt on the ground with his head down, and lightly tossing the magnesium powder packet with his left hand.
After he was almost done, Yagami threw the powder bag on the ground behind him, took out the baseball from the holster in his right hand, spun it around, and carried it behind his back.
Catcher Kentaro Matsuda saw that Yagami was almost ready. He made gestures with his fingers under his body, opened and set up the ball sleeve.
A fast straight ball that lands in the inside corner?
Yagami nodded, stood up straight, raised his legs and stepped forward, raised his arms and swung them forward. The next moment, with the sweep of his arms, the baseball shot straight out from the pitcher's mound.
"call out!"
The expression of the Narita batter standing on the batting box changed, he suddenly stepped forward, and swung out the metal bat in his hand.
"Whoosh!"
Unfortunately, the baseball flying from the pitcher's mound rushed past the home plate area faster than he expected. The metal bat in his hand had just swept over the home plate, and the baseball flying from the pitcher's mound had already been It fell into the open cover of catcher Kentaro Matsuda and made a clear sound.
"Boom!"
“strike.“
The Narita batter frowned. The pitcher seemed to be throwing the ball faster than before. Didn't he throw the ball with all his strength before?
Yagami moved his shoulders on the pitcher's mound, caught the baseball passed to him by Matsuda-senpai, then raised his legs, waved his arms, and threw the baseball in his palm according to the signal given to him by Matsuda-senpai.
"call out!"
When the baseball flying from the pitcher's mound to home plate was about to reach home plate, it made a large diagonal change to avoid the batter's sweeping metal bat and fell into the catcher's open sleeve.
Many people were surprised by Yagami Yagami's perfect curveball, but he was alone thinking: his curveball was completely incomparable to Tamba's curveball.
Yagami Yagami, who was slightly dissatisfied with his pitching, shook his head when he saw Matsuda-senpai continuing to ask him for an inside corner ball. It was not until Matsuda-senpai gave him the signal for a mid-low slide ball in the outside corner that he nodded in agreement.
His matchmaking.
Taking a deep breath and then exhaling it slowly, Yagami waved his left hand and stepped out. Driven by his fingertips, the baseball flew out of the pitcher's mound and flew straight towards home plate.
"call out!"
When the baseball flies away from the pitcher's mound and is about to fly to home plate, it draws an arc and slides laterally from the inside corner to the edge of the outside corner.
"Whoosh!"
The bat that was swung by the batter and the baseball that was flying from the pitcher's mound crossed each other at a short distance, and another swing missed.
"Bang!"
Matsuda-senpai's open glove successfully caught the baseball that flew into the outside corner.
“strike out.“
The referee gestures to indicate that the batter is out.
The next player on the pitch should be Narita pitcher Kawamura, but Narita sent a relief player to bat. It seemed that the opponent was preparing to change pitchers.
After Yagami struggled with him for a few pitches, he struck out the substitute who came up, and then faced Narita's top hitter again.
…
Even if Narita changed pitchers, letting their ace Yuki Karakawa pitch on the plate still could not restore their disadvantage.
Qingdao has shown its own momentum. Good defense can attack with confidence when attacking, and continuous scoring can make the defensive players more relaxed when defending. It is very difficult to come back in this cycle.
Unless Seido couldn't think of a temporary change of pitcher, Narita's supervisor really couldn't think of a possibility of catching up with the score.
The practice match between Seido and Narita ended with a score of 7:3. After that, Narita’s supervisor accompanied Seido’s team, led by Director Kataoka, to a restaurant near Narita University for dinner.
After lunch, everyone got on the school bus and prepared to head to Gunma County.
Supervisor Narita held Supervisor Kataoka's hand and said meaningfully: "This year's Seido is really exciting!"
Originally, he thought that the level of the two schools would not be too different. Although they were only a team in the second round of Koshien in the spring, it should be a close match. Unfortunately, today's practice match was completely dominated by Qingdao.
beat.
This is a purely offensive team. No such team can stand out in Tokyo, which makes him very curious about the strength of Ichida San, Daocheng Industrial and Didong who can suppress Qingdao!
Of course, he has also heard that Seido has been lacking good pitchers in the past few years. If this is true, then Nishi Tokyo's qualifying situation this year will be even more confusing.
Director Kataoka smiled and thanked Narita High School for the reception, and said politely: "I hope we can meet each other in Koshien this summer." After saying that, he turned around and got on the Aomichi school bus.
After watching Aomichi's school bus drive out of the school gate, Narita's supervisor turned around and walked back to the baseball club. There were too many things to reflect on today. If they still want to get the right to qualify for Koshien in the summer, the team