Saturday, clear skies.
At Jingu Stadium in Tokyo, a fierce baseball game was in full swing.
The two teams competing were the West Tokyo Seido High School Baseball Team and the East Tokyo Koudai Affiliated High School Baseball Team, both of whom had distinguished themselves in the Spring Tournament.
Koudai Affiliated, just from the name, you could tell it was an affiliated high school of a university. And Tokyo Koudai itself was very famous worldwide, a super prestigious university that could rank among the top one hundred.
As an affiliated high school of Koudai, Koudai Affiliated was naturally also a key high school. Nominally, this high school was public, but Tokyo Koudai was a private university.
So don't assume that just because Koudai Affiliated was a metropolitan school, they were poor or not strong. That was really not the case. Koudai Affiliated was one of the very competitive teams in East Tokyo; last year, they even played against Teito in the East Tokyo finals. They unfortunately lost by three runs. All in all, their strength was very good.
For this game, Seido High School Baseball Team naturally made some preparations. But as soon as the game started, they were outmaneuvered by their opponent. Kawakami, who started as the pitcher, was hit for a series of hits. Although Miyuki called a timeout and tried to help Kawakami adjust his condition, they still gave up a run in the end.
At the beginning of the game, Seido High School Baseball Team was already one run behind their opponent.
Although for Seido High School Baseball Team, the strongest hitting lineup in the country, a one-run difference was almost negligible, this was, after all, a bad start. Not a good omen.
In the stands, those die-hard supporters who had specifically come to cheer for Seido High School Baseball Team were originally full of confidence.
Judging from the difficulties Seido High School Baseball Team had overcome before, to pose a threat to them, at the very least, it had to be a powerhouse or a team with powerhouse-level strength.
For example, Inashiro, or the previous Yakushi. If the opponent did not have this level of strength, challenging Seido High School Baseball Team would simply be a pipe dream.
Although Koudai Affiliated High School Baseball Team's strength was not bad, everyone could see that while strength was a very important reason for them to advance to the semi-finals, there were also factors of luck. If they had encountered other powerhouses earlier, they probably would have found it difficult to get this far.
Before the game, the die-hard supporters of Seido High School Baseball Team had assessed all the players from both teams on paper. The result was that the opponent was completely unqualified to pose a threat to Seido High School Baseball Team. This game might have some minor twists and turns, but the final result would not change.
The die-hard fans of Seido High School Baseball Team had an internal communication group, and in this group, these topics had already been discussed online. In the end, even fans who were not die-hard supporters of Seido High School Baseball Team kept nodding after seeing their analysis. There was no way around it; the disparity in strength between the two sides was still quite obvious.
Seido High School Baseball Team, strictly speaking, had no weaknesses. Especially after Zhang Han threw a Light Speed Ball exceeding 155 kilometers per hour, everyone believed that the current Seido High School Baseball Team was likely the strongest in the past seven or eight years. Even when facing their arch-rivals Inashiro and Ichidai Third High School, they had a very high chance of winning.
What was Koudai Affiliated?
But as soon as the game started, the cruel reality slapped everyone in the face. Koudai Affiliated High School Baseball Team showed no signs of backing down. Especially under the command of their coach Ito, the players were very methodical in their offense.
If it weren't for the excellent performance of Seido High School Baseball Team's second baseman, who blocked the baseball that was about to fly out with his body, Koudai Affiliated might have scored two runs in one go in the top of the first inning.
It was also thanks to Kominato Ryosuke's brilliant performance that Seido High School Baseball Team was able to successfully overcome this crisis. But they were still behind in the score.
The score was 1:0.
Kawakami was a bit nervous. As a first-time starting pitcher, he seemed very unaccustomed, not even using 80% of his usual strength. This also strengthened Coach Kataoka's previous thoughts. New pitching talent had to be selected.
Kawakami clearly hadn't recovered from the previous hit-by-pitch incident, not even daring to throw his best sinker. Such a Kawakami could still be effective when facing ordinary opponents. But once he faced powerhouse-level opponents, he would probably find it difficult to stop their attacks.
If only one pitcher was like this, Kataoka could grit his teeth and endure. The problem was that the Ace in their baseball team also had a similar problem. Once he encountered a strong opponent, once he was pushed hard, he would often make some particularly low-level mistakes.
The current Seido High School Baseball Team, due to the presence of Yuuki and Zhang Han, was centered around strong hitting. Their requirements for pitchers were actually not that high. But at the very least, a pitcher needed to show enough fighting spirit and stay steady at critical moments. Otherwise, if the pitcher was a sieve, then even if Seido High School Baseball Team's other batters scored many runs, they would find it difficult to win the game.
With Zhang Han's pitching severely restricted, Seido urgently needed a new pitcher.
For some reason, Kataoka thought of the young man he saw last night. He had been practicing running all day, sometimes even dragging tires, and his body was clearly very tired. But that young man never gave up. In fact, in the past few days, after training, he would even voluntarily do extra pitching practice.
Don't just look at him being a first-year. Perhaps that young man possessed what Tanba and the others lacked the most.
The game moved to the bottom of the first inning.
Although Seido High School Baseball Team had been slapped in the face early, both their own players and the fans in the stands firmly believed that Seido High School Baseball Team could turn the tide of the game.
They would definitely overtake the score, and quickly. After all, Seido High School Baseball Team was the renowned strongest hitting lineup in the country. Even Inashiro, with Narumiya Mei, had been unable to stop Seido High School Baseball Team's furious offense.
Bottom of the first inning, Seido High School Baseball Team's offense.
"First batter, shortstop, Kuramochi Yoichi."
The first to step into the batter's box was still Seido High School Baseball Team's speedster. Because Kuramochi hadn't performed much in the previous game, he was exceptionally active in this one.
Kuramochi's starting position had only just stabilized. If he still couldn't produce good results in this game, he would likely be replaced for the upcoming finals.
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