Diamond Ace: Another Story of Sawamura

Chapter 128: Imperial East War

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After the second batter Ryosuke came on the field, he swept all the difficult balls except the low balls out of bounds. After hitting five balls, he got three balls, just one ball away.

"Good ball! Batter out!"

"……" Upon hearing the judgment, Liangjie just smiled slightly. He thought that the ball was out of the strike zone, but the referee called it a strike.

'It feels like I've encountered this situation before...'

"Look, I'm going to beat you to pieces!"

Isashiki walked to the batter's box with a menacing look on his face, then did a U-turn in front of the umpire, greeted him politely, and then pointed fiercely at the pitcher's mound.

"Come on, bastard!"

"Snapped!"

On the first pitch, Isashiki hit the ball with a perfect swing.

Looking at the arrogant pitcher on the pitcher's mound, Izashiki inexplicably thought of his own little pitcher, 'the arrogant little brat...'

"Don't get carried away!"

"Qiang!"

Isashiki roared and headed out a low ball from the inside corner.

The baseball flew high and then slowly fell down in the middle of the field. The shortstop looked up at the ball while backing away and raising his glove.

"Snapped!"

"Batter is out! Attack and defense switch!"

"Tsk..." Isajiki smacked his lips in dissatisfaction and turned around to return to his own rest area.

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At the beginning of the second inning, Furuya faced Teito's fourth batter Kengo Inui.

They had no intention of letting go of the opportunity of Fūya's unstable start, and were preparing for an attack with great momentum.

"..."Fōtani could clearly feel that this batter had a different aura from the other players, and he tightened his grip on the baseball unconsciously.

"This is also within expectations, use your strength to suppress him!" After two strikes and three balls, Miyuki hit a straight ball right in the middle.

"Hmm..." Fūya nodded and prepared to pitch.

The speed of the pitch today was very good. He wanted to maintain this state throughout the game and would not be hit out here.

"Attack! Attack! Didong!"

"Attack! Attack! Didong!"

In the batter's box, Inui tightened his bat and waited seriously for the pitcher's ball. When Fūya raised his leg, he also followed suit.

"boom!"

Facing the roaring baseball, Qian widened his eyes and swung the bat, hitting the ball out with a dull thump.

Qian frowned, gritted his teeth and ran to first base unwillingly. He didn't hit the ball well.

"Right field!"

Right fielder Shirasu raised his hand to signal while running after the ball, and he ran all the way to the home run wall before reaching the landing point, where he actually caught the ball.

“Great!”

"Furiya! Nice throw!"

"Furiya! Good throw!" Miyuki passed the new ball to Furuya, then glanced in the direction of Teito, 'I didn't expect it to be hit so far.'

"How was it?" Mukai met Senior Qian in front of the rest area and asked curiously about how the blow felt.

"..." Qian raised his trembling left hand in disbelief, "It's like shooting a shot put."

"what?"

"This was the first time I felt the power of the ball when I hit it... At that time, I felt a shock as if I was struck by lightning..." This is the feeling that Qian could express.

"You are often struck by lightning!" Xiang Jing complained in surprise at Senior Qian's exaggerated reaction.

Fūya eliminated the opponent's main gun, which made a good start for the second game.

However, when facing the fifth batter, he was entangled in four balls and a walk, and the sixth batter hit a sacrifice bunt, which made it a situation with two outs and a runner on second base. He ended the first half of the inning by striking out the seventh batter.

In the second half of the inning, Teito's defense faced Seidou's fourth batter Yuki Tetsuya from the very beginning.

Didong definitely wanted to defeat him in this round and make the rhythm of the game follow his own pace, so of course he chose a head-on confrontation.

First he hit a low ball to the outside corner to earn a strike, and then he hit a low ball to the inside corner to get Yuuki to hit a ground ball to third base...

The third baseman was right in the direction the ball flew and luckily caught the ball that bounced back from the ground.

"How dangerous..." The third baseman couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat as the force of the ball hit his stomach directly through his glove.

"..." He suddenly felt lucky, because if that ball had hit him, he would have been dead.

Next, facing the fifth batter Masuko, Teito's pitching and catching partner threw a series of difficult low changeups, making it difficult for him to hit.

"There are so many low balls..." the next batter, Miyuki, muttered as he walked into the batter's box.

"Two people are out!"

"Two out!"

"Snapped!"

"nice shot!"

"..." Miyuki looked at the gloves that were placed very far away. It felt clearer this close. 'The clear sound... and the movement of the gloves stopping beautifully even when catching the ball...'

"It's not just pitcher Mukai's pitching... this catcher is also good at catching..."

Looking at the pitching and catcher duo working in perfect harmony on the field, Coach Okamoto was satisfied and pleased.

"Kengo... That little brother named Mukai is quite powerful."

'I just graduated from junior high school, but I'm already very smart... I know where the batter hates the pitcher to throw the ball, so I deliberately throw the ball there.'

'But he was a little too absorbed in his pitching...'

'He'd throw the ball to the corner of the strike zone, and if the catcher was bad, he wouldn't make the sun shine.'

"Whether he can perform well or not...it all depends on you...Xian Gang!"

Because of what Supervisor Gangben said, Qian started practicing squatting with a two-kilogram dumbbell hanging on his wrist every day.

In order to catch the Sun's ball steadily into the glove.

"Snapped!"

"Two good shots!"

Miyuki Sakano frowned a bit in embarrassment; the location of the ball was really difficult to shoot!

"Good shot!"

Mukai now stood on the pitcher's mound with confidence, as if he was shining brightly.

"His shots are all pretty low..." Yamato said while looking at Senior Mine, feeling that the shots were all bad even if he tried to hit them.

"Yeah... Seidou should have locked on to certain balls, but it's not easy to wait for easy balls."

“Even if you keep pestering, you will eventually be forced to hit a difficult shot.”

What happened next seemed to be natural. Miyuki, who was already being chased, had to keep shooting those difficult balls.

Finally, he hit an inside corner ball into a ground ball towards third base, which was blocked at first base.

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

"Suns! Good shot!"

"You can let them fight as much as you can!"

"Mukai can throw the ball to the corner of the strike zone, and the fielders have very good defensive skills..." Having said that, Fujio Mine looked towards the Qingdao rest area.

"They should have practiced against Mukai's pitching..." After all, Seidou also has a pitcher who can throw the ball to the corner of the strike zone.

"But it's not easy to defeat this ever-victorious army..."

Top of third inning...

Hard and direct, facing the batter of Teito, Furutani quickly got a beautiful strikeout with just a straight ball.

"Soldiers!"

"It hurts!" Xiangjing gritted his teeth in pain. He just hit the ball and his knuckles were hurting.

With Mukai being caught out, it also meant that Teito's batting line had already taken a turn, and their first batter would go to bat for the second time.

"Two people are out!" While Miyuki was shouting to Fūya, he was also instructing the defense to be more vigilant.

"He's completely relying on strength to suppress his opponent..." Feeling completely opposite to Mukai, Yamato once again looked at Senior Mine and commented.

"Yeah... He hasn't thrown a changeup yet." Fujio Mine leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed. "Miyuki's pitch was even bolder than in the previous game..."

Facing the first ball thrown by the pitcher, the batter gritted his teeth and hit the ball hard, sending it flying toward center field.

Although the defense acted quickly, the ball was unexpectedly deep and finally landed between three outfielders.

"Hah!" Having successfully avenged the strikeout in his previous at-bat, Yamano stood on first base and raised his fist in victory.

"Senior Yamano!"

"Good fight!"

Didong hit its second hit here. Although the sacrifice bunt in the second inning did not score any points, it was now the second round of attrition, so they naturally would not miss any opportunity.

The second batter showed as if he was going to hit a bunt from the start, and the first baseman also boldly left the base and prepared to make a move.

Miyuki tapped his gloves to signal Furuya to focus on the batter. "Today's opponent is a team where tricks are useless, and the weather is so hot..."

"Don't think about unnecessary things, just rely on the power of the ball to suppress the batter!"

"boom!"

Even though there were runners on base, Seidou's pitching and catching duo still threw boldly, which was somewhat surprising.

Seeing this, coach Okamoto gave instructions to the runners and batters on the field on their next move.

The players on the field responded quickly after receiving the instructions.

The moment the pitcher is about to step forward to throw the ball, the runner starts running without hesitation and rushes to the next base.

"Stealing a base!"

The screams of the audience and the batter's movements as he pulled the bat back to prepare for the strike were all absorbed.

"No... it's a hit-and-run tactic!" Miyuki made the next move very calmly. This ball was completely beyond the batter's swing range.

"what!"

"It's a bad ball!"

"You are responsible for dealing with the batter..." After seeing the baseball being taken into his hand, Fūya quickly bent down to make way for the pass.

"Snapped!"

The baseball landed exactly into Ryosuke's glove as he stepped onto the second base just as the runner slid to the second base.

"The runner on first base is blocked on second base!"

"The hit-and-run tactic failed!"

It was an exemplary pass, which shocked Qian, who looked towards the catcher at home plate.

Miyuki lifted his mask and smiled with satisfaction. The result went exactly as he expected.

'I'll take care of the runners!'

In the bottom half of the inning, Mukai continued his pitching beautifully, striking out Seidou's lower batters in succession and bringing the game to the fourth inning.

And Furuya is about to hit the center line against Kamiya Higashi in the fourth inning.

"Huh..." After catching the ball, Jōtani took a deep breath, then raised his leg and threw the ball out.

"Snapped!"

"Good ball! Batter out!"

The next batter is, "Fourth batter, catcher Gan!"

"Hit! Hit! Didong!"

"Come on! Come on! Didong!"

As the fourth batter came on the field, Teito's cheers became louder and louder, as if to put pressure on the pitcher.

"Huh..." Jyoutani shook the anti-slip powder twice, threw it aside, and blew off the excess powder on his fingers.

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