The weather was a bit gloomy. Although it rained yesterday, it has not rained since yesterday evening. The condition of the venue was not too bad, which made the players of Aomichi and Red Sea Osugada feel at ease when they came to the competition site.
.
After Yagami threw fifteen warm-up balls, Chris stood up and walked in front of him.
"Let's get here first. There will be a lot of pitches in today's game." Chris said, looking at the dugout of Red Sea Osugada opposite: "Your pitching should have been studied by them, but if you play in the first round,
I'm still going to use fast pitches, fastballs and changeups."
"Well, I understand."
The combination of fast straight ball, fast ball and change-up ball also has a lot of room for operation.
Time passed quickly while the players were preparing. Soon it was 10:26. The referee looked at his watch and signaled that the game was about to begin.
The players from Aomichi and Red Sea Osugada lined up next to their captain, looking at each other.
Then following the referee's order, he rushed to the center of the field.
"present!"
Outside the first-base and third-base dugouts, the supervisors of Aomichi and Red Sea Ohsuda took their scorers and ball boys to bow and salute.
"Autumn Tokyo Metropolitan Conference finals, first half of the first inning, Red Sea Sugata High School offense, Aomichi High School defense; pitcher, Yagami Yagami; catcher, Takikawa Chris Yu..."
On the field, the stadium broadcast announced the list of Seido High School players at various positions. At this time, the outfielder Kanichi Fujii of Red Sea Osuga Tanaka also walked to the side of the home plate with his bat.
Red Sea Osuda Ichibada Fujii waved the metal bat in his hand, and after receiving the referee's signal, he immediately walked into the batting box.
After Chris glanced at the opponent, the opponent's information flashed in his mind. His speed may be slightly inferior to that of Fukuda-senpai, but compared to Tanaka-senpai, he is a hitter whose speed is not inferior to him at all, and his hitting level is
It's not bad. If he is allowed to go on base, the defensive pressure will increase several times... so we can't give him a chance to go on base!
As the air defense siren sounded over the stadium, the referee also issued an instruction to start the game.
"play ball."
Iori Yagami put his left hand behind his back, watching Chris give the signal, raising his arm high, stepping forward, and throwing his left arm outward as the center of gravity of the body leaned forward, concentrating the power on the fingertips.
The baseball was pushed out.
"call out!"
The baseball flew off the pitcher's mound and headed toward home plate.
Fujii took a step back, swung the metal bat in his hand and swept over.
"Whoosh!"
The baseball flew over home plate at one step faster and got into Chris' open and arranged ball sleeve.
"Bang!"
"Missed the shot!"
After Fujii stood up again, he looked at the ball speed displayed on the lower right side of the scoreboard.
147km/h!
Chris stood up, took out the baseball from his holster and threw it back to Yagami, then squatted down and gave him a signal.
"call out!"
The baseball came flying from the pitcher's mound. At the moment when Iori Yagami pitched the ball, Red Sea Ohsuda Ichibat Fujii, who originally held the bat high, changed to holding the bat horizontally, bent over and pointed it in the direction of first base.
"Ping!"
At the moment when the metal bat collided with the flying baseball, the impact transmitted from the metal bat was greater than Fujii imagined. The ball that he thought could be easily hit deflected at an angle and flew to the side.
outside the boundaries of the fortress.
Although he didn't hit the ball well and it was a short hit, Fujii's touch was very good and he successfully hit the baseball thrown by Yagami Yagami on the second ball.
Chris thought for a moment, gave Yagami a new password, and set up the ball sleeve.
It doesn't matter if you throw a sinker close to the inside corner, even if you can't control the ball well and it turns into a bad ball.
Spiral ball? Yagami nodded, followed Knis's signal, waved his arm, and threw the baseball in his hand.
"call out!"
Watching the baseball flying out of the pitcher's mound heading toward home plate, Fujii repeated his old trick, holding the bat horizontally and sweeping it out at the angle at which the baseball was coming.
However, just when the baseball was about to fly into the home plate area, it began to fall diagonally towards the inside corner. Fujii's metal bat swept across the home plate area without touching the baseball flying from the pitcher's mound. He could only watch helplessly.
The baseball flew from the pitcher's mound and flew into Chris's bag.
"Bang!"
"Three misses, out!"
Fujii, the Red Sea Ohsuda first baseman, had no choice but to leave the batting area with the metal bat. He said to Yamamoto, the Red Sea Ohsuda second baseman and second baseman who had just left the batting area: "The ball is heavy and difficult to hit."
"Yes." Yamamoto responded to indicate that he understood, and walked towards home base.
After walking to home plate, Yamamoto saluted the referee and then turned his attention to Chris, the Seido catcher who was squatting in front of the referee.
As the two sides looked at each other, the slightly raised corners of the Seido catcher's mouth could be seen through the protective cover of the Red Sea Sugata second bat.
"call out!"
The baseball thrown by Yagami Yagami was in front of Yamamoto's eyes in an instant. Seeing it, he swung the metal bat in his hand with all his strength.
"Whoosh!"
When the baseball was swung by the metal bat, the sudden change in displacement, although the amount of displacement was not large, allowed the swung metal bat to pass by it smoothly and get into Chris' open ball sleeve.
"Bang!"
"Three misses, out!"
Under the batting of Chris, Yamamoto, who missed three swings and was struck out, could only look at Chris behind him unwillingly, turned around and left the batting area.
Chris stood up and gave a gentle smile to Yamamoto who turned to leave the field. He turned around and took out the baseball from his holster and threw it back to Yagami Yagami.
…
The baseball flew out of the pitcher's mound, and before Aomichi's three-hitter Kotaro Tojima swept over with his metal bat, it suddenly fell and was stopped by Red Sea Ohsuda catcher Kanamori's kneeling position in front of him and caught in the pocket.
"Boom!"
"Three misses, out!"
Aomichi Kotaro Tojima looked seriously at the Red Sea Ohsuda pitcher Kazuya Seda on the pitcher's mound. The latter didn't look back and turned around and walked off the pitcher's mound, jogging towards the Red Sea Ohsuda's dugout.
"Strikeout, Sugata's trump card, Sugata-san successfully got the last out of the first inning."
In the rest area of Qingdao, the three players who came on to attack in the second half of the first game each talked about their feelings. After listening to this, Director Kataoka didn’t say much about it, but instead signaled the army to focus on
The next defense is in progress.
Yagami returned to the pitcher's mound with a pitcher's glove and looked at the Red Sea Ohsuda four-bat Ishiguro Hayabusa standing on the batter's box.
When Hayabusa Ishiguro stood on the batting box and assumed a posture waiting to hit, he looked very intimidating, especially when the opponent was a strong hitter.
Chris, who was squatting behind home plate, looked at the four batters in front of him. Facing such batters, neither he nor Yagami could be negligent in the slightest, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous. This chapter has been completed!