Bottom of the first inning.
Two outs, no runners on base.
Narumiya Mei, standing on the mound, already held a two-strike advantage against Zhou Hao.
That meant one thing—
For the third pitch, Zhou Hao had no choice but to swing.
Otherwise, he would be struck out.
Under the countless watchful eyes in the stadium, Zhou Hao acted decisively.
BOOM!
His swing was clean and textbook-perfect.
The bat cut through the air and collided fiercely with the baseball.
CLANG!!
The crack of contact echoed across the entire field.
The bat had connected perfectly with the center of the baseball.
Behind the plate, Harada's breathing hitched instantly.
If this ball flew out—
He didn't even dare imagine the consequences.
And just as he feared, the baseball rocketed skyward and carried deep into the outfield.
Without even watching the result, Zhou Hao tossed the bat aside and exploded toward first base.
While he wasn't completely certain—
There was at least a ninety percent chance this would become a hit.
And behind him stood Yuki Tetsuya.
Even if this wasn't a Home Run, Zhou Hao believed there was still a very high probability Seido could bring him home.
Their opponent today was Narumiya Mei.
If Seido could score first against him, the advantage would become enormous.
Because for Inashiro to turn the game around, they would have to score off Zhou Hao's pitching.
And Zhou Hao had absolute confidence in his own mound presence.
Just as Zhou Hao approached first base—
The baseball finally began descending.
Seeing the ball about to land safely, a black blur suddenly shot across the field like lightning.
At the exact instant the baseball dropped, the figure launched forward without hesitation.
The audience collectively held their breath.
Nobody expected Inashiro Industrial's center fielder to play this recklessly.
A diving catch like this could easily result in serious injury if anything went wrong.
But before the spectators could even finish thinking—
SNAP!
The figure secured the baseball cleanly inside his glove.
Because of the incredible momentum behind the dive, his body continued sliding across the grass for several meters.
"Out!!"
"Three outs, side retired!"
The Seido supporters fell silent in shock.
"He actually caught that?!"
"How far did he slide just now?"
"At least two or three meters…"
"You can imagine how fast he was running!"
The crowd stared in disbelief.
Even Seido's players felt their scalps tingle watching the play unfold.
They already knew every player on Inashiro Industrial possessed outstanding ability.
But now, they realized they had still underestimated them.
Seido High School may have been the reigning powerhouse—
But that didn't mean Inashiro Industrial was weak.
On the contrary—
How could a team capable of fighting all the way to the Spring Koshien finals possibly be ordinary?
In terms of overall team strength, Inashiro might not be inferior to Seido at all.
And Carlos's miraculous diving catch proved exactly that.
With one incredible defensive play, he had dragged the game completely back to square one.
Even veteran reporter Fujio from Baseball Kingdom Magazine couldn't help praising Carlos's performance highly from the stands.
This wasn't merely a battle between star players anymore.
It was a clash between two complete teams.
Top of the second inning.
The first batter stepping into the box for Inashiro was cleanup hitter Harada.
Before entering the batter's box, his body appeared somewhat stiff.
As the team's fourth batter, he carried the responsibility of driving the ball off Zhou Hao.
But deep down, Harada understood clearly—
How could something like that possibly be easy?
His opponent was Zhou Hao.
The undisputed number one player in the nation.
Hitting his pitches was never something ordinary batters could accomplish.
Even for Harada.
"Senpai, you're too tense."
"Even if you can't hit the ball cleanly, at least don't lose in momentum."
Behind him, Narumiya Mei spoke in his usual blunt tone.
Although his words didn't sound particularly friendly, they struck Harada's heart like a heavy drumbeat.
Narumiya wasn't wrong.
Fear alone would never solve anything against Zhou Hao.
The only option was to face him head-on.
As for embarrassment—
Who cared?
Countless players had already been humiliated by Zhou Hao.
One more wouldn't matter.
The logic was simple.
Harada had merely trapped himself in his own overthinking.
Now that he understood that, his eyes suddenly sharpened with terrifying intensity.
With his large eyes locked firmly onto the mound, Harada stared directly at Zhou Hao.
Behind home plate, Miyuki Kazuya immediately noticed the shift in Harada's mentality.
"Senior Harada feels different now."
"With his power, continuing to rely on Breaking Balls would be dangerous."
The Inashiro lineup had already figured out the trick behind Zhou Hao's disappearing Breaking Ball.
By lowering their bats, they could reduce the visual blind spot.
That meant Zhou Hao's signature pitch could no longer dominate as freely as before.
So what should they do next?
On the mound, Zhou Hao gave a nearly imperceptible nod.
Although he was using more Breaking Balls to conserve stamina, that didn't mean he couldn't throw Fastballs.
The important thing was timing.
A pitcher had to know exactly when to maximize the effect of each pitch.
And the batter standing before him now was Harada—
The absolute core of Inashiro's offense.
If they could shut this guy down, the following innings would become much easier.
Then do it.
Sometimes, pitching required decisiveness.
There was no need to endlessly weigh pros and cons.
Once you found the answer, you attacked.
Without hesitation, Zhou Hao raised his leg and drove forward.
As his center of gravity shifted, the baseball exploded from his hand.
BOOM!!
The instant the ball left Zhou Hao's fingertips, it felt as though the entire stadium ignited.
The audience collectively widened their eyes.
Fast.
Too fast!
The thought surfaced instinctively in everyone's minds.
The baseball resembled a beam of white light as it vanished straight into Miyuki Kazuya's glove.
SNAP!
"Strike!!"
Standing in the batter's box, Harada didn't even have time to react.
His mind had still been focused on Zhou Hao's previous Breaking Balls.
Who could have guessed Zhou Hao would suddenly unleash a blazing Fastball with absolutely no warning?
Harada slowly exhaled and lowered his eyelids.
"So it was specifically for me…"
Despite having a personality completely opposite to Narumiya Mei's, Harada suddenly understood something at that moment.
Sometimes, learning from their Ace wasn't a bad thing.
If Narumiya Mei were standing here in the batter's box—
He would probably be excited instead.
Why had Zhou Hao suddenly switched to a near-160 km/h Fastball?
The answer was simple.
Because Zhou Hao acknowledged him.
Because Zhou Hao believed Harada was dangerous enough to force him away from his safer pitching strategy.
Continuing to throw Breaking Balls might invite disaster.
And everyone understood that clearly.
Inside the batter's box, Harada forcefully calmed his breathing.
Honestly—
Zhou Hao throwing Fastballs now might actually benefit him.
After all, Inashiro's core players had spent countless hours training against pitching machines specifically to prepare for Zhou Hao.
While they didn't know how other schools handled things—
The core lineup of Inashiro Industrial had long since become accustomed to 160 km/h velocity.
Harada tightened his grip on the bat.
"I can definitely hit it."
Even if it were a 160 km/h lightning-fast pitch, he was confident he could blast it away.
Inside the dugout of the Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team, every player craned their necks toward the field.
No one understood their Ace's situation better than his own teammates.
They knew very well that, at this moment, Harada had already made up his mind to crush Zhou Hao's pitch out of the park. And they were more than happy to see it happen.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for that electrifying moment.
If they could successfully get a Hit off Zhou Hao, it would not only give the team a huge morale boost, but also prove to everyone watching that the supposedly invincible Zhou Hao was not completely flawless.
Zhou Hao could be beaten too!
Just as Harada was thinking that, Zhou Hao suddenly moved on the mound.
Without the slightest warning, the white baseball exploded from his hand.
"BOOM!"
With a thunderous roar, the pitch screamed toward the plate.
Standing in the Batter's Box, Harada had practiced against high-speed pitching thousands of times in private.
But now that he was facing Zhou Hao directly on the field, he realized that a 160 km/h Fastball was absurdly fast.
Power hitters usually waited for the ball to come deep before swinging.
But against this pitch, that was impossible.
Even if he had to force it, he needed to swing early. Only then would he stand a chance of making contact.
Judging the timing, Harada swung before the baseball had even reached him.
"BOOM!"
Seeing Harada's decisive swing, Narumiya Mei, standing behind him, smiled faintly.
Senior Harada has finally figured it out.
Harada had always been the type to worry about every detail. As the team's Fourth Batter, he wanted every swing to connect perfectly.
And with his overwhelming skill, he could actually pull it off to a frightening degree.
The result was that once opposing teams got dragged into Inashiro's rhythm, they would inevitably collapse.
It wasn't because they lacked strength.
It was because Harada controlled the entire flow of the game.
From beginning to end, his opponents could never escape the palm of his hand.
That was Harada's greatest strength.
But naturally, it was also his weakness.
Whenever he faced opponents on equal footing—teams he couldn't completely dominate—his overly cautious style became a burden.
Whether it was his batting or his game-calling, Harada always leaned toward the conservative side.
However, through his repeated clashes against the Seido High School Baseball Team, he had gradually overcome those weaknesses.
And now, it seemed he had finally broken through completely.
That was incredibly important for Inashiro.
Just as Narumiya Mei was secretly celebrating, the bat collided with the baseball.
"CLANG!"
The instant the impact came, Harada felt as though both of his arms had been crushed by a bulldozer.
The sheer force was impossible to resist.
The bat slipped from his hands and flew backward.
The Home Plate Umpire instantly ducked to avoid the flying bat.
Every umpire assigned to a Seido game was specially warned beforehand.
This kind of situation rarely happened in ordinary games.
But Seido was different.
Bats being blown out of hitters' hands had happened far too many times before.
The umpire narrowly dodged the bat and instinctively patted his chest.
Still alive...
As expected of the nation's number one.
To think Zhou Hao could even blow Harada's bat away?
Harada's swing strength was considered among the best in the entire country.
Back in Seido's dugout, the players were equally stunned.
Zhou Hao had actually blown Harada's bat away?
That was Harada!
A slugger on the same level as their captain.
And yet, his bat had been sent flying by a single pitch?
It was almost unbelievable.
"It was probably the angle of contact. Harada's swing hadn't fully come through when he jammed the inside pitch."
Chris analyzed calmly.
In his opinion, eighty percent of what happened was simply coincidence.
"So what? A coincidence is still a coincidence. The fact remains that Zhou Hao blew his bat away. Let's see how those Inashiro guys keep acting arrogant now!"
The substitute players in Seido's dugout immediately started cheering.
From their perspective, it didn't matter whether it was luck or not.
The important thing was that Zhou Hao had overpowered Harada completely.
"Foul!"
With that, Harada was backed into a corner with two strikes against him.
The dugout of the Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team fell deathly silent.
The result before them was enough to leave every player shaken.
"It's just a coincidence. Don't let it get to you. Zhou Hao's Fastball isn't actually that heavy."
Even Coach Kunimoto rarely bothered explaining things to his players, yet this time he spoke up personally.
Still, the players couldn't help but feel affected.
That was Harada.
Their cleanup hitter.
One of West Tokyo's Four Great Power Hitters.
Harada. Hoshida. Zhou Hao. Yuki Tetsuya.
Harada stood among those monsters.
And yet his bat had still been blown away.
What exactly did that mean?
None of the Inashiro players dared think any deeper about it.
Every single one of them was deeply shaken by what they had just witnessed.
And the fans in the stands were no different.
Coming to watch this game had absolutely been worth it.
Not only had they seen Zhou Hao pitching at full power—
They had also witnessed a legendary scene.
A batter's bat being blown completely out of his hands.
Even for the nation's number one pitcher, performances like this didn't happen every day.
"Absolutely magnificent!"