Diamond Ace: Another Story of Sawamura

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"It's so hot at nine in the morning..." Rongchun pulled his collar uncomfortably.

"I'm sweating even when I'm standing..." Jōgō said he was really about to melt.

"Yeah..." Danbo felt the same way. After all, this summer is hotter than in previous years.

Looking at the three pitchers, Eijun, Fūya, and Tamba, who were hiding in the shadows, Koharu said with a smile, "It's going to get even hotter later..."

"The tactics should be carried out as we planned in the meeting. Don't forget to confirm the secret signal. Keep hydrated. The other players on the bench should also support the team. The next game depends on everyone to win!"

"Yes!"

"The starting pitcher is Furuya, are you ready?"

"Okay!" No matter how hot it was, he couldn't resist the urge to play, so Fūya nodded in response.

"The backups are Kawakami and Sawamura! You two should warm up first and be ready to go at any time!"

"Yes!"

"Why are you three hiding in the corner?" Isashiki pointed at the three pitchers hiding in the shadows and said angrily, "It's time to enter the field!"

"Ah...it appears!"

"A player from Seidou!"

"Azhe!"

"Isashiki!"

"Masuko!"

"Jiangu!"

"Chris!"

"Qingdao!"

With the cheers from Qingdao, Mingchuan's side seemed a little quieter in comparison.

“The cheering sounds are so scary…”

"There are a lot of people in the other audience, not only the band but also the cheerleaders..."

"Compared to them, we..."

"Because everyone is busy taking tutoring classes during the summer vacation..."

"My parents told me to quit baseball! It's so sad..."

"Haha... My family is similar. They even said that they didn't let you study at Mingchuan just to let you play baseball!"

"Well...we didn't expect that you would play baseball so seriously..."

"We've come this far, how can we give up?"

Having said that, they all turned back in tacit understanding and looked towards the rest area, where Ace was listening to music with his eyes narrowed.

Although everyone complains and envies Qingdao, the players of Mingchuan are not discouraged by this. This is because after Shun joined the team, they tasted the joy of winning.

"Shunchen, what's the situation?"

"Situation? It's no different from usual..." Shunshin just took off his headphones and explained his condition to the supervisor's question, "I'm pitching the same as usual, suppressing the batters the same as usual. This is the job of a pitcher, no matter what team the opponent is."

"Really reliable!"

"Like Shunshin said, no matter who the opponent is, we just have to play our own baseball! Let's enjoy the fun of baseball!"

"Yes!"

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The first attacking side in this game is Mingchuan. For Qingdao, the pitching condition of the starting player Furuya will be the key to the game.

On Mingchuan's side, it is Yang Shunshin's pitching. Whether he can suppress Qingdao's batting line is the key to the game.

In terms of team strength, Seidou obviously has the advantage, but for Mingchuan, who has clearly done training to deal with Furuya's pitching, he does have a certain initiative in a sense.

The audience is all looking forward to whether Seidou, who is always among the top four every year, will win.

Or will Mingchuan, led by Yang Shunchen, who is ready to create an upset, win?

The winning team will advance to the quarterfinals!

"Line up!" At the referee's command, the two teams rushed onto the court with a collision of momentum.

The match between Qingdao and Mingchuan officially begins!

"Watch the ball carefully, Ninomiya!"

"He can't throw the ball faster than the machine!"

"As expected, the starting pitcher is first-year player Fūtani..." Coach Ogata exclaimed with envy when he saw this, and then looked at Shunshin.

"If it's true as we speculated, this is our chance to take advantage of the situation, knock that pitcher out early, and then control the game at our own pace!"

"Game start!"

Miyuki noticed that Mingchuan's first hitter did not hold the bat short, and thought that they should have seen Seidou's previous game.

Miyuki thought about observing the batter's waiting state and gave the position of the ball, "Throw it over here, your favorite high pitch!"

Seeing Furuya take a pitching stance, Ninomiya clenched the bat. Although he was prepared, he was still startled by the ball thrown by Furuya and leaned back to avoid the ball.

"boom!"

"Wow! The speed of the ball today is amazing!"

“To make the ball make that kind of noise!”

"Is he really a freshman in high school?"

The game started as if there was no suspense, and the goal responded to the audience's passion and set off a new wave of waves.

Miyuki felt more helpless about the first ball, "I had clearly told him to control the rhythm, but he still used all his strength to shoot from the beginning."

"Oh... What kind of ball is this? It's completely different from a pitching machine. The ball moves and makes a loud noise. It feels more oppressive..."

Ninomiya looked towards the rest area, and seeing the supervisor nod, he stood back up, "But... it's not so scary that I want to escape from the strike zone!"

Seeing that the ball was still held with a long stick, Yuki was somewhat impressed, "But... this development..."

Ninomiya then held back and didn't swing for the next three pitches, getting a walk and reaching base.

"He didn't hit the bat once..." Rong Chun, who had met him in the pitching practice area, said to himself in a low voice, and cast an admiring gaze at Yang Shunchen in the opponent's rest area, "How smart!"

The second batter did the same thing, he went straight to the left batting position and gripped the bat tightly. Miyuki guessed his opponent's plan, "I didn't expect it to turn out like this..."

"These batters have no intention of hitting, and the runners have no intention of stealing bases. Are they planning to increase Furutani's number of balls and make Furutani lose his composure?"

"This is a tough start for Furuya..." Yamato looked at the situation on the field with concern. He got four balls at the start of the inning. "So far, the high pitch path that induces the batters of each team to hit has been thoroughly studied..."

"It's not that his pitching path has been thoroughly studied..." Fujio Mine disagrees, "but no matter whether Furuya throws a good ball or a bad ball, the batters don't intend to swing!"

Unlike pitchers who get outs by throwing to batters, Furuya is a fast-pitch pitcher who gets outs by striking out, which Mingchuan naturally knows.

Risking the possibility of being struck out by not moving, this is probably the most difficult tactic for Furutani.

"Bad ball!"

"Ah... the number of balls has become one good and three bad!"

"What's wrong with Furuya? Hurry up and make the batter miss like usual!"

At this time, there was a wailing in the audience seats, and at the same time, there was a cheer during Mingchuan's break.

"Hashimoto! Good choice!"

"That pitcher can't throw into the strike zone!"

"..." In Yang Shunchen's opinion, this was all expected. A pitcher with unstable ball control efforts could not control the game. 'It's only a matter of time before we defeat Furuya...'

"Damn...sweat is so annoying..." And Furuya was already getting a little annoyed.

"I knew this would happen sooner or later, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon. If I can't get through this, there will be no chance for Furuya to play again."

Thinking of this, Yukichi carefully gave the signal for one strike and three balls.

"Eh?" Fūya was stunned when he saw the signal, "Forkball? Throw it in this situation?"

Although he didn't quite understand Miyuki's intention, Furutani still did it. He was not the kind of person who would guess the pitch. He just had to try his best to pitch.

Although Furuya threw a forkball, it was a ground ball that bounced off the ground, and the batter was walked and reached base.

Both Furutani himself and the audience were very dissatisfied with such a pitch being thrown when a good ball was urgently needed. On the contrary, Akikawa was quite happy. In their opinion, this was a sign that Seidou was beginning to lose its composure.

Facing the third batter, Miyuki threw the forkball for the first pitch, "Just throw according to my signal..."

Miyuki had previously discovered that when Furuya threw a straight ball, his shoulders would be very stiff, and only when he threw a forkball would he relax his shoulders and use his wrist to throw the ball.

Maybe it was because the arm swing was relatively large and he had to pay attention to the relationship between his fingers. As he expected, Fōtani's condition improved.

"nice shot!"

"Not bad! Good pitch!" Miyuki threw the ball back to Furuya. This was a good sign. 'Next pitch, a straight ball right in the middle.'

"Two good shots!"

"Why did he suddenly..." The batter looked at the catcher's glove in shock.

"Good ball! Batter out!"

"Very good, the pitching is not too strong anymore..." Knowing that Mingchuan was not going to swing the bat in this inning, Miyuki naturally would not miss the opportunity to get some strikes and happily struck out four batters.

At present, with two outs and runners on first and second base, Qingdao welcomes Mingchuan, the soul of the team.

"Fifth batter, Jan."

"Let the pitcher throw more breaking balls on purpose to make him less stiff?" Shunchen said a few words to Miyuki during the preparation time. "If the pitcher is incompetent, the catcher must have a hard time, right?"

"Haha... not really..." Hearing this, Miyuki was not angry, "Because there is nothing to be afraid of a team that doesn't swing the bat! By the way, your Japanese is really great!"

Seeing Miyuki's relaxed attitude, Shunshin and his duo became more alert to the pitcher and catcher. "We must first teach this pair of pitchers and catchers a lesson."

"Supervisor... It seems that Sunshin is about to launch an attack..."

"We absolutely cannot let that pitcher hold the game steady right now!" The supervisor understood what Shunshin meant, and there was nothing he could do to stop him.

"That player that Eijun is interested in, the points the team has gained so far are all related to him..." Chris wanted to hear his thoughts while helping Eijun warm up, "What do you think about this?"

"Well... He is the soul of this team. In order to prevent the opponent from gaining momentum, we must suppress him..."

Looking at Yang Shunshin in the batter's box, Eijun chuckled and said, "It all depends on how Miyuki-senpai guides Furuya."

Feeling Yang Shunshin's unusual momentum, Miyuki realized that he wanted to concentrate on hitting Fūdani's ball, so he called for a high ball on the first ball to trick the player into missing.

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