The rhythm of the baseball game was very slow. Kazuya watched the pitcher of the lagging team on the field swinging his head around to check the opponent's movements to prevent the other party from trying to steal a base.
That player exchanged secret signals with his catcher partner squatting at home plate. It seemed that the catcher felt that the type of ball given to him was unreliable, so he couldn't make up his mind for a while. He looked at the coach on the field, hoping that he would give some instructions. The cautious attitude he showed made people feel boring.
But Kazuya could understand them. After working hard for a year, who didn't want to achieve good results, who didn't want to be the focus of the entire country and gain both fame and fortune. If they lost the first round, a year's efforts could be said to be of no value at all.
The fierce competition is evident. Everyone who enters the games pursues only victory. Only the winner's efforts are valuable.
Kazuya interrupted Shin's popularization, saved the life of Yoko whose eyes had become circles: "Are Yuma's opponents strong?"
Shin turned back and said with a relaxed smile: "I watched last year's video of that team, and it seemed that it was not very strong."
Kazuya thought that it was that so. If the other team was a super strong team, he probably called last night to cry and complain about the injustice of God, instead of insisting on dragging him to watch the game.
The game was dull, so he got up and bought iced juice and some snacks for everyone, mainly bought for Yoko. He is very frugal himself, but he wasn't frugal with Yoko and always wanted to feed her well.
Yoko gave him a sweet smile and started eating with Haruna.
The two teams lingered for more than 40 minutes before finishing the remaining three games. No wonder Koshien in August started holding trials with IH in June. With this efficiency, it's just a daydream that the qualified spot can be decided among more than 100 teams in more than a month.
After this game, a sharp air-raid siren suddenly sounded, which startled Kazuya who instinctively looked up at the sky. It took him a moment to realize that this might be some kind of strange tradition. The players of Nishibishi Affiliated High School was in the middle of the stadium. They failed to reverse the defeat and lost the game with a score of 14:1. The pitcher was kneeling on the ground crying and finally moved away by his companions who also looked upset.
Kanagawa Industrial entered the second round, while the summer of Nishibishi Affiliated High School was over.
No one paid attention to his tears. The staff quickly recovered the field and the scores of the two teams on the scoreboard were cleared soon.
Players of the next game entered the field from both sides to start warming up, including Yuma. He was wearing a baseball cap and a uniform with diagonal stripes. He looked less mean and more like a sports boy. He did not concentrate on warming up, but searched the stands with his eyes. He soon found Kazuya and the others, rushed over directly, held up the brim of his baseball cap through the barbed wire fence in salute, and shouted: " Pay attention to the heroic appearance of me!"
If he usually dared to speak like this, Shin would definitely roll his eyes at him. But this time instead of ignoring him, he encouraged him: "Come on, Yuma!"
As this bastard's friend, Kazuya couldn't throw cold water on him at this time, so he also yelled, "Uchida, fight hard!"
Yoko also clenched her little fists and shouted: "Senpai, please come on!"
Haruna's mouth was stuffed with banana slices and she shouted vaguely: "&#&*#&#!"
Yuma had already seen Haruna and Yoko, so he winked at Kazuya and expressed his satisfitory with Kazuya's attention. He thought Kazuya even brought his girlfriend to cheer him up. Then he was called by a senior and ran away.
The players began to line up and saluted each other and the four referees. The air raid siren sounded again.
Kazuya took a closer look at the field and found that there was no Yuma. He wassurprised and asked Shin: "Where are the Uchida Shouldn't all the people from Hope Peak Academy be on the field during defense?"
Shin pointed the place under the seats: "Yuma has entered the bullpen."
The bullpen is the lounge for players who are not playing on the field. Originally because the fans were herded like cattle, this area became known as the "bullpen", a designation which was retained when those areas became the spot where relief pitchers would warm up.
Kazuya was speechless. If he didn't come on stage, why was he asking everyone to come? He asked: "Which position does he play? Isn't it his turn?"
"He is a catcher in the first-year pitching and catching team. He can't be a starter. I guess he will come on when the starting pitcher is tired!"
Kazuya was even more speechless. It sounded like he couldn't come on!
He was preparing to beat Yuma to death if he didn't play. The game had already begun. The opponents were from Naganogawa High School, wearing a pure white baseball uniform, and they were on the offensive side. Their first batter was standing in the strike zone with an arm stretched out to indicate that he is not ready,. He was digging his feet on the ground to dig a shallow hole there to prevent him from losing focus point at the start later.
And not far away from him was the second batter kneeling on one knee and observing the pitcher from Hope Peak Academy.
Kazuya glanced at the scoreboard. It is currently 0:0. He wished Yuma to win!
Japan's seniority-based phenomenon is quite serious. At first, Kazuya thought that Yuma was bragging again. Maybe he was a substitute among substitutes and mainly responsible for handing out towels to everyone in the team. He would most likely not play at all.
But he never expected that in the second inning, he would see Yuma wearing full protective gear with a bitter look on his face, starting to warm up with the pitcher in front of the bullpen, and then being sent on the field in the third inning.
Before the start of the third inning, the score between the two sides was 10:0, with Naganogawa in front and Hope Peak Academy in the back.
Naganogawa High School is a comprehensive high school in Owariasahi City. It is not a famous school and the Hagar's performance last year was mediocre. But this year, it didn't know whether it went through hell special training or added many powerful newcomers or maybe they hired a brilliant coach, they started a storm at the beginning.
Not only were four and five baters strong in traditional impression, but every baters were very strong except for the first batter. They had great power and were extremely accurate in judging the path of the ball, directly knocking the mentality of Hope's Peak Academy's starting team out of balance.
Naganogawa scored 4 points in the first offensive inning. After switching offense and defense with three outs, they seemed to know the details of Hope's Peak Academy quite well that it didn't have a strong hitter among the first three baters, so they directly pressed forward in the outfield and performed a pressing defense.The pitcher was also good, striking out one person and cooperating with his teammates to directly kill two people. Hope's Peak Academy's more threatening fourth bater ended in the first inning before they could get on the field, scoring 0 points.
In the second inning, they captured Hope's Peak Academy's pitch more accurately, and hit a home run in the first hitting, which directly caused other party's pitcher's mentality to collapse and made frequent mistakes. In the end, Naganogawa easily scored 6 points.
The two sides exchanged offense and defense again, and Naganogawa, who had already occupied such a huge advantage, was still not arrogant or impetuous. It seemed that they had already made tactical arrangements. The pitcher had four walks and sent the fourth bater to the first base, while the most powerful hitter at Hope Peak Academy didn't even swing the bat. He didn't even get a chance to boost his morale, could just stay on first base in despair, and then watched fifth, sixth and seventh baters being beaten by three strikeouts in a row. His at-bats were pointless because no one behind him couldn push him forward.
The third inning hasn't even started yet, but the mentality of Hope Peak Academy's pitcher has completely collapsed. The hitter could hit the ball no matter how hard he pitched it. Coming on was purely to give away points, so the first-year pitching and catching team trained as a reserve force was asked to play.