Diamond Ace: Another Story of Sawamura

Chapter 109 Final Day

"The game continues in the bottom of the eighth inning!"

"Because Sawamura quickly went down the hill to deal with it, the runner was tagged out at home plate. Now there is one out, runners on first and second base, and the batter is the eighth batter, left fielder Van."

"Sawamura!"

"One person is out! One person is out!"

"Don't be nervous!"

"..." Eijun nodded to the defense and looked at Chris-senpai.

"All the balls I hit were inside corners... Did I aim for the inside corners?" Chris put his gloves in place.

The first pitch was a bad ball to the outside corner and the batter didn't swing.

The moment he caught the ball, Chris threw a strong pin to second base.

Although Chris's warning made Daoshi very afraid, they still moved away from the base again.

'Don't worry about the runners, just throw your ball over here!'

"..." Looking at the glove placed in the corresponding position, Rongchun squeezed the baseball, then raised the glove...

"call out!"

"Inside corner kick... wait for it!"

Instead of chasing the entire strike zone and hitting the ball, it is better to use the simplest and most brutal method and focus on the inside corner.

Don't miss any hittable ball, hit it aggressively!

Thinking of this, Fan stepped on the ground and swung the bat hard.

"Qiang!"

"!" The ball hit the ground in an unexpected direction and rolled towards third base.

This time, Zengzi acted very quickly. He appeared next to the baseball first and caught the bouncing baseball.

At this point the entire running line was in motion, and Zengzi judged that it would be too late to make up the position at third base, so he stood up and turned sideways to throw the ball to second base.

"Snapped!"

When Hirai was about to slide, Haruichi had already reached second base, caught the ball and quickly passed it to Yuki at first base.

"Snapped!"

"Double kill!"

"Three people are out! Attackers and defenders switch!"

At this moment, the players of Inashi were all shocked, "They actually threw the Carter ball here!"

"Qingdao!"

"here you go!"

"Sawamura!"

"Qingdao!"

Everyone in the stands of Seidou was cheering. Although they conceded many runs at the beginning and there were some minor accidents in the middle, Seidou still did not lose any runs.

In comparison, the Inashi stand seemed a little quiet, with a sad atmosphere.

Only two people were extremely excited and were shouting and celebrating to the point of forgetting everything else.

"good very good!"

"very good!"

"..." Wakana, who was happy for Eijun, suddenly shuddered when she heard the cheers of the father and son.

"Grandpa...Uncle...Look around!"

"what?"

The happy father and son were still outside the line until they glanced at the atmosphere around them and suddenly became as quiet as a chicken.

At the end of the game, Rongchun ran to Chris and said, "How was it? I think the shot was good..."

"..." Seeing Rongchun's cautious look, Chris stopped helplessly and gently pushed down Rongchun's hat, "You did a really great job..."

"Eijun, good shot!"

"Asshole! Good shot!"

"..." When the people coming over from behind saw Rong Chun with stars in his eyes and a joyful atmosphere emanating from his body.

"Did Chris praise you?"

"Hahahahaha!"

"You kid...don't get carried away!"

Chris couldn't help but smile as he watched the group of people making such a fuss. 'Should I say he's brave... or reckless...'

At this time in the press box, Yamato was also feeling a little emotional about the current situation.

"With one round left... Inami will actually lose three points..." Yamato looked at Fujio Mine, "Inami didn't expect it to turn out like this."

"Yeah..." The situation developed in an unexpected direction. Fujio Mine sighed and looked at Qingdao. 'The person who created this trend must be that person...'

In this important final that determines advancement to Koshien, the first-year pitcher was sent to start and has persisted until now, suppressing Inami's batting line to zero points.

Although they are completely different types, his performance reminded Fujio Mine of Narimiya who stood in front of Qingdao last year.

"In Seidou, which lacks an absolute ace...his posture on the pitcher's mound makes people think of an ace..."

'Sawamura Eijun...'

"Carter ball!" On Inami's side, Minister Ota seemed a little panicked, "It turned out that he had kept it until now..."

"That pitcher-catcher duo..."

"I totally forgot there was such a ball in the data..."

"Tsk...what a hassle..."

"Hmph... he just happened to throw the ball into a tricky spot." Amid the tense atmosphere, Cheng Gong's calm voice was heard.

“Only one shot a game…either I was too confident in myself or it was an incomplete shot.”

"Top of the ninth inning, Seidou High School is on offense, the sixth batter is catcher Chris."

"Fight it out!"

Chris stood in the batter's box amid the cheers from the stands, ready to hit, and looked at Cheng Gongming who was still standing proudly on the pitcher's mound.

Looking at Chengmiya on the pitcher's mound, the audience began to talk again.

"Let Cheng Gong continue to vote..."

"Of course! He's the ace pitcher!"

"But, will he still be thinking about that?"

"The ball Masuko hit in the last game was very powerful..."

Cheng Gong, who was on the pitcher's mound, nodded after seeing the signal and changed the way he held the ball in his glove.

"Snapped!"

"nice shot!"

"The first pitch is the forkball! The batter swings and misses!"

“……”Chris was not surprised that the first ball was a changeup.

They know very well that they cannot lose any more points, so they will be very careful with their pitching, but they also want to avoid being too cautious and getting four balls in the air...

Therefore, if you can’t hit the ball well even if you hit it, it’s better not to hit it hard. First, you have to create an appearance of active attack, and then wait for the straight ball to grab the ball count!

"call out!"

The baseball arrived again as promised. Chris focused his eyes and swung the bat without hesitation. No matter whether it was a straight ball or not, he just had to aim at the straight ball path of the white light.

"Qiang!"

The solid feeling of hitting the ball made Chris' body instinctively move the bat forward and swing the bat completely.

The baseball hit the infield defense at an extremely fast speed and landed near the left field line.

The moment the ball was hit, Chris dropped the bat and ran quickly. Before the left fielder passed the ball back, Chris had already stood on the second base bag.

"This inning is still full of momentum! Seidou's powerful hitters are attacking again! With no one out, there are runners in the scoring circle!"

“That’s great!”

"It seems that we are still maintaining the momentum from the last inning..." Eijun thought as he looked at Narimiya who was standing on the pitcher's mound with a grim expression, "It would be great if we could continue like this..."

Cheng Gong gnashed his teeth and looked towards the home base, his expression became more and more gloomy and angry...

First ball...

"Qiang!"

The moment the ball was thrown, Eijun decisively changed his batting stance and skillfully hit the ball toward the first base line.

Eijun quickly followed the ball to first base, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Chris-senpai running to third base, and Narimiya-senpai running down the pitcher's mound.

Yamaoka, who ran forward to block the ball, was also paying attention to the runner on third base. He turned around and passed the ball to Ming who was filling in the first base position. It was impossible for him to pass the ball to third base.

"Snapped!"

"Out!"

"OK! OK!"

"Catch them one by one!"

"One out!"

"One person is out! One person is out!"

Chris reached base safely, and the situation became one out with a runner on third base.

"Seidou is adopting a strong offensive strategy..." Because the tactic in the fifth game failed, Yamato did not expect that Seidou would choose this tactic.

"Ah... but this will allow the runner to advance to third base..." Fujio Mine was not surprised at all.

If we could get one more point in this round, it would probably be the last straw that broke the camel's back.

"That's what happens when you take control..."

But the next score is a problem. It is not so easy to score from Narimiya, not to mention that it is the turn of Qingdao's lower batting line here.

At this moment, Inami sent a player to pass the message, requesting a defensive timeout.

At this time, Coach Kataoka saw the situation and waved back Kadashi Kadota who was about to go to the batter's box.

"Infield drive front defense."

"Right...beware of the point-grabbing tactics."

"We still have the second half to attack! After we get through this half, let's attack hard in the last half!"

After hearing what the messenger said, Inami's infield players all smiled in understanding.

The surrounded Narimiya just raised his head to receive the direct sunlight, muttering softly, "It's not enough... It's not hot enough... The pitcher's mound in Koshien is even hotter..."

"It's even hotter..." When everyone was stunned, Narimiya lowered his head and pulled down the brim of his hat, "Because I have always wanted to go to the pitcher's mound in Koshien for revenge... Although you may think that how can a pitcher like me who missed three points say such a thing..."

"But, I really want to go to that stage again..." Cheng Gong smiled inexplicably, "So I definitely don't want to lose here..."

As expected, seeing their shocked expressions, Narimiya suddenly grinned and said, "Haha...Does that make you feel uneasy? Because the ace pitcher suddenly said something like that!"

He showed all his weaknesses...

After everyone was stunned, they all laughed together.

"I caused a lot of trouble for the team..." Narimiya clenched his gloves as he watched his teammates leave the pitcher's mound. "There are still times when I can't sleep..."

That summer...

What do you mean because I am a freshman...

It's not my fault?

That means... they didn't trust me from the beginning...

Compared to the defeat... I am more upset that they think of me like this...

"Top of the ninth inning, one out, runner on third base. This is a good chance for Seidou to score again."

"Bad number eight, Kadota, left fielder."

Inami's infield defense was forward as arranged, and he made a gesture ready to return to home plate at any time.

"If you want to fight, then fight!"

"We will definitely hold on!"

"Really... In this situation..."

"Whether it's showing off or being overconfident... whatever it is..."