Diamond Ace: Another Story of Sawamura

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What is baseball to you?

'It's flame.'

"The souls of the head coach and the players collided fiercely, and the flames flew. This is the flame of the beginning."

'Even if you improve your baseball skills or have a good environment and equipment, if the person fighting on the field is just an empty shell, you can't defeat your opponent.'

"The thing that boosts the skills and the body... is the mind."

"It is my mission as the head coach to ignite the fire in the players' hearts."

This excerpt comes from the famous head coach, Kazuya Okamoto, who is 65 years old this year and still passionate about Teito High School.

"You idiot! Don't use the stick to touch the ball!"

"How can you let your swing go wrong?"

"Control the bat head and swing it!"

While supervising batting practice, Coach Okamoto will certainly also pay attention to the situation of the pitching lineup.

"hiss!"

"Snapped!"

Mukai waved his arms, feeling pretty good, "Next, throw to the back corner!"

Hearing this, Qian showed a slightly excited smile, 'The corner behind... I heard this sentence half a year ago! '

"I'm beginning to doubt it now!" Mukai said that this is not the right time to recall it! Now the state is just right!

"What? Nine-square grid?"

"Yeah, you have such good ball handling skills, you should be able to shoot accurately, right?"

"No..." Mukai thought it was something else, so he smiled perfunctorily, "To be honest... dividing it into nine squares is not enough."

"What? Not enough? You..."

"It's already detailed enough to divide it into nine grids!"

"Really?" Mukai was a little surprised. Isn't this very simple?

'The words spoken by this freshman who just joined the company made me feel as surprised as if I were struck by lightning...' In fact, Qian's expression made people feel as if they were struck by lightning.

Inside corner, outside corner, high and low...Anyone who can throw the ball to these three corners is considered a pitcher with very good ball control.

Not to mention being able to divide the area where the ball passes into nine squares...

"...But..."

"It's not like I'm just throwing the ball at a target drawn on paper!" If that were true, it would be too boring.

“The strike zone has depth.”

Mukai said these words so easily that everyone around him was shocked.

"Hehe... I discovered this when I was in junior high school... and then I found pitching very interesting." Mukai stood on the pitcher's mound, flexed his arms and stuck out his tongue. "I guess I'm addicted, right?"

"..." Qian, who was squatting in the catcher's area, was still thinking about something.

depth...?

Inside corners, outside corners, high and low...are divided into nine squares of strike zones...plus...

"Depth..." Qian seemed to see the strike zone of home plate at this moment, "This is the world seen by the sun."

It's not a two-dimensional space...

But it is a three-dimensional space!

The ball was thrown and hit home plate accurately from the corner behind the outside corner.

"Snapped!"

"This is... a good shot, right?" Mukai smiled proudly.

At this moment, Qian felt struck by lightning again!

'This...this man...is really different from us!'

"Can I pitch now?" Xiangjing interrupted Qian's memories here, "I won't let you just be a memory!"

"..." Qian was silent because of the interrupted memories...

"Senior Qian! Your reaction is too exaggerated!"

Coach Okamoto looked at the pitcher and catcher seriously, then smiled.

"But there are a small number of players...whose hearts were already burning before I ignited them..." This is the last part of the excerpt...

'Sun in the Sun'

"Looking back now, we dominated the country twice...both times when we had players like this on the team..."

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Compared with Teito’s passionate morning training, Qingdao’s morning training is not that passionate.

"Qiang!"

As his hand sank, Kuramochi hit the ball out.

"Pass to first base!"

When Furuya received the instructions from Senior Miyuki, he quickly ran down the pitcher's mound and threw the ball to first base.

"Snapped!"

"Furiya! Very good!"

"Well guarded!"

His own defense eliminated Senior Kuramochi, and Fūya blushed with satisfaction, and made a small bow-drawing motion.

"Don't feel satisfied!"

"Just listen carefully and follow the instructions!" Kataoka was satisfied with Furuya's performance, but still said there was room for improvement, "Especially this year, Teito has many players with good footwork!"

"Use the time after completing the defensive action to understand the situation and prepare! Don't defend based on the momentum!"

"Next is Sawamura!"

The situation is that Kuramochi is on third base and it is the third batter's turn.

In this situation, Eijun threw a low ball that was cut to the edge of the strike zone on the outside corner, leaving the batter with nowhere to hit.

"Sawamura! This ball is great!" It was still an impeccable pitch. After Miyuki passed the ball back to the pitcher's mound, he quickly gave the signal for the next ball.

"Throwing it from the right end of the plate to the outside corner is already a good practice..." Chris rubbed his eyes, "but a sideways pitcher will throw the ball at a greater angle."

"And Mukai's ball handling skills, which use his own characteristics to throw the ball to the inside and outside corners, should not be underestimated!" Chris is a little dazed because he stayed up too late last night...

"Yeah." Kataoka nodded when he heard it, "I almost never throw a pitch that's too easy to hit. As long as I'm ahead in the count, I'll throw a changeup."

"The hitters he eliminated were almost all because they tried to hit low balls. They didn't hit bad balls. This is the basic requirement for attacking Mukai."

"Then there's the third-year ace, and the second-year pitcher!"

"..." With the doctor's permission, Ryosuke was able to participate in some training starting today. When he saw Chris go to the side to rest, he also walked over and said, "It feels bad, right!"

"Hmm..." Chris responded with a headache.

"I seem to know why Sawamura is always scolded, but still goes out to play so often..." When Ryosuke said this, the corners of his mouth rose even more.

"He may be... a stronger person than we thought..."

After a day of training, for some reason the players were exhausted as if they had just finished a summer training camp. After dinner, they all went back to their rooms to rest.

"What happened?" Seeing this unclear situation, Takashima Rei looked at Chris, who was also in low spirits, with concern.

"Maybe... because everyone discussed it too late last night..." Chris didn't dare to say it, because everyone stayed up late with Rongchun last night.

"This is an important period. Don't be too focused. You need to rest well, okay?"

"Um..."

"..." Eijun turned his head away with amusement after hearing the conversation between Chris-senpai and Takashima.

"..." Seeing that Eijun was laughing secretly, Ryosuke leaned close to Eijun's ear and asked quietly, "Are you going out to play again tonight?"

"...Yeah." Rongchun hesitated for a moment and nodded slightly.

"be careful."

"Well, I will."

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As the results of the first round of competitions came out one after another, most of the teams that qualified were the expected teams.

While Qingdao is collecting information on the teams that have qualified, it is also preparing for the first battle which is getting closer.

On August 8, the day before the competition...

"I see. Even yesterday..."

Because the first game is tomorrow, Minister Ota, who stayed at the school, has started to get nervous. Even though they will come to cheer for the team tomorrow, he still called Takashima Rei to ask about the team's situation.

"Yeah..." Takashima smiled and looked at the players who were batting, "It seems like everyone is practicing batting until very late."

"Because Teito's players are very unique, and there are also pitchers who can skillfully slice the edge of the strike zone to make the batters run around in circles."

"Sawamura! Be serious!"

"What!" Rongchun shouted back angrily, "I struck out all of you! Isn't that serious enough?"

"Your ball keeps moving everywhere! The pitchers at Teito don't throw balls like yours!"

"Do you think the pitcher will throw a good ball during the game?"

"These are two completely different things!"

"..." Looking at Sawamura who was arguing with Isashiki next to him, Tamba saw Chris signaling to ignore them and continue practicing, "The ace number still belongs to me, I will never give it to anyone."

"Snapped!"

"That's a good shot!" Miyuki, who was not too affected, received the ball and stood up to pass it back to Kawakami, "He's very motivated."

"Hmm..." Kawakami nodded seriously, 'We are both side throwers... I can't lose to him!'

"Boom!"

Next to him, Fūdani was also pitching the ball to the batter. He was also pitching with all his strength and trying his best to make his presence felt.

"I really want to play... in the game!"

"..." Eijun glanced at the powerful Fūya, took a deep breath and looked at Isashiki-senpai, "Next, I'm going to throw an outside corner ball that Iisashiki-senpai can't even reach, and it's going to go past the edge of the strike zone!"

"You little brat! Don't underestimate me!"

"..." Standing on the sidelines, Kataoka observed everyone's condition, but he was actually still worried about the list of starting players.

Moreover, the most important issue, who will be the starting catcher in the first game, has not yet been decided by Kataoka.

At the evening meeting, Director Katagang announced the starting lineup, and the most anticipated...

"The starting pitcher is Furuya and the catcher is Miyuki."

As he wished, he was able to play in the game, and Fūya instantly burst out with the momentum of "I must fight..."

"Yes!" Chun Shi understood it at a glance and encouraged him with a smile.

“……” Rongchun also laughed when he saw it.

"The temperature will be very hot tomorrow, so you should be prepared and go to bed early today!"

"Yes!"

"Tomorrow's opponent is the famous Teito, they won't let us win easily." As he said this, Kataoka punched his chest with a smile on his face, showing his trust in the players.

"But now we are standing at the same starting point as them. Trying our best to exert our original strength is the shortcut to victory."

"Let's go and win tomorrow!"

The contestants did not intend to disappoint the supervisor's trust and showed confident expressions.

They firmly demanded that they must not be defeated...

"I'm done, disband!"

"Thank you!"

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