Sawamura Eijun is strong!
This is not only clear to Seidou's own players but also to the players of Akikawa Academy.
Before the game, Akikawa Academy must have thought about a lot of countermeasures against Sawamura. It is not so easy to deal with Sawamura just with their attacking strength.
so...
The rest area of Akikawa Academy.
"We are in a weak position and can only use defensive counterattacks!"
Coach Ogata smiled humbly.
"It's just that there are four pitchers in Seidou High School. If the supervision of Seidou adopts the Pitchers relay, we will be very passive."
Yoh Shunshin, who was sitting on the bench, sneered: "No, I won't give Seidou a chance to make a substitution."
There is no such thing as a 'defensive counterattack' in baseball.
This tactic is most commonly used in football. It refers to the weak team. In order not to fall behind, most of the players are deployed at the back of the field, leaving only one or two people in the front field, waiting for an opportunity to launch a counterattack.
Use numbers to fill the gaps and strengthen the defense.
Then, launched a lightning-fast counterattack.
This is the meaning of defensive counterattacks.
Coach Ogata moved it to the baseball field with a very clear intention, that is, to strengthen the defense force, consume Sawamura's ball count, and then wait for an opportunity to launch a counterattack.
No matter how good Sawamura is, his speed and power after 100 balls can never be compared with the previous 100 balls.
As long as Akikawa Academy can hold on to the score during this time, then they will have a chance to fight back…
"Although it looks a little cowardly, a team that knows what they can and can't do, must have enough confidence to complete their plans once they have formulated their tactics. If they are allowed to be led by the nose, the result will be very troublesome."
When the two armies confront each other, it is necessary to know about each other.
In this regard, Akikawa Academy has done a good job.
'I just don't know if you can do it.'
Thinking, Chris gave Sawamura a code.
On the pitcher's mound, Sawamura nodded and pitched.
The white ball whistled.
Whoosh!
Ninomiya, who was already behind by two Strikes, did not swing the bat in the face of Sawamura's fishing ball.
SNAP!
"BALL!"
The baseball was rubbing the outside edge of the strike zone and flying into Chris' Mitt.
Chris's heart sank.
To be honest, he didn't expect that Akikawa's Batters would observe the ball path so carefully.
In terms of Sawamura's pitching form, in the eyes of the batter, the speed of the ball is very fast. With such a fast ball speed, they simply don't have much time to tell the difference between a Strikes and a Ball.
Especially this kind of corner ball, it is even more difficult to distinguish.
It is difficult to distinguish between Strikes and Balls, and he is behind in count. It is said that there is no reason for the batter not to swing.
But Ninomiya did not swing the bat.
'They can observe carefully!'
Chris is somewhat embarrassed, so he wants to use a specious Ball to force the batter to miss the bat, I am afraid it is not easy.
On the strike zone, the sweat on Ninomiya's forehead never stopped.
'The ball looks so fast!'
'Standing on the strike zone and watching Sawamura's pitch, because I couldn't see the starting point, I felt the ball was very fast.'
Fortunately, they had seen a ball with a speed of 160 km/h before. Although Sawamura's ball was fast, it didn't make him feel overwhelmed.
As for Sawamura's corner ball, it is impossible to confuse the Akikawa Batter.
Before, they were training under the abuse of Yoh Shunshin.
In Akikawa, Yoh Shunshin never did ordinary pitching practice.
He competed with every batter in Akikawa seriously and honed his ball control through these actual battles.
Where Akikawa's batters Yoh Shunshin's opponent?
However, in the duel with Yoh Shunshin, Akikawa's batters have honed a magical ability.
That is their ability to judge Strikes and Balls!
Yoh Shunshin has the ball control level of 9 square grid, and his corner pitches are much more accurate than Sawamura's.
Akikawa's Batters could barely distinguish Yoh Shunshin's, and naturally, he could also barely distinguish Sawamura's.
If it weren't for Sawamura's peculiar pitching form, which made his ball speed appear to be particularly fast, Akikawa's Batters could even distinguish most of them…
Of course, it is impossible to tell them all.
But Akikawa's batters don't need to identify all of them, as long as they identify most of them, it is enough to consume Sawamura's pitching count.
In the position of the catcher, Chris looked a little cautious.
The expression of the opponent's batter was getting anxious, and there were beads of sweat on his forehead.
It can be seen that he is also very nervous when dealing with Sawamura. Nervous yes, but the other party has no intention of escaping.
'It's more difficult than I imagined.'
After making a judgment, Chris let Sawamura throw two more balls.
One ball in the outside corner and one ball in the inside corner.
Ping!
"FOUL!"
Ping!
"FOUL!"
Through these two balls, Chris has generally figured out Akikawa's attacking plan.
Depending on the characteristics of Sawamura's sharp breaking of the ball and his good control of the ball, Akikawa's strategy is to choose the ball and entangle it!
After knowing the other party's strategy, it is naturally easy to solve them.
'Bring it on!'
The next Pitch, a Straight Pitch to the upper edge!
On the pitcher's mound, Sawamura didn't ask any questions and pitched the ball directly.
Whoosh!
The white ball whizzed out.
On the strike zone, Ninomiya watched the ball nervously, then held back and did not swing the bat.
'According to the data, the probability that this kind of ball is the weird Moving ball is very high.'
SNAP!
"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!"
After tangling with six balls, Sawamura solved Ninomiya smoothly.
Seidou's rest area.
Ochiai frowned and looked at Akikawa's team.
"The opponent's strategy is very simple and straightforward, but I have to admit that it's a good tactic. They know the gap between themselves and Sawamura, and they don't have any needless thoughts. They only want to hit the ball out of bounds. This will not only improve the batter's chances, it also increases their plan success rate as a whole."
No desire is just!
Once you give up hitting the ball into the field and only focus on entanglement, Akikawa's players can still entangle some balls.
In the stands.
Fujio looked at Akikawa's team in disbelief and at Sawamura on the pitcher's mound.
"Sawamura-kun's rhythm is messed up!"
"Eh?"
Akiko Owada was confused and asked curiously.
"Whether it was playing with Hakuryu or anyone else during the Kanto Tournament, Sawamura usually kept the rhythm of three or four balls and scored one Out. This batter took six balls!"
Six balls are enough to solve two batters.
This is obviously not Sawamura's normal rhythm.
In the rest area of Akikawa Academy.
Coach Ogata nodded excitedly.
'There is good!'
After watching Sawamura's game video, he was even desperate for a bit.
Such a strong Pitcher, how do they get points from Sawamura?
It was Yoh Shunshin who gave him hope.
"No pitcher is perfect and doesn't drop points."
Demon-King Sawamura, too!
As long as he is human, there must be weaknesses.
What Akikawa has to do is to gradually extract this weakness.
"This tactic, let's just call it the Slow Acting Poison."
…
T/N: That's it for Today.
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