On August 10, the weather was sunny and the temperature was 33 degrees Celsius. (91 °F.)
Hyogo Prefecture, Koshien Stadium.
The second round of Koshien has already started in full swing, and now it is the second half of the fifth inning of Seidou's match against Yoshiyama High School.
The game was 'intense'.
Saying it like that is to be a little more polite to Yoshiyama High School.
The starting pitcher of Seidou High School is backup Ace Tanpa, and the catcher is the main catcher Chris. The two joined forces and directly dismantled Yoshiyama High School's lineup.
That doesn't seem like a good explanation, so let's say it like this.
The batters at Yoshiyama High School are working very hard, really hard. At least they did not give up at all in the face of Seidou High School, the returned King, and they are very active in swinging the bat.
It's just with the high-drop Curve thrown by Tanpa Koichiro, as well as the suddenly appearing Forkball, they really don't know what kind of ball should they aim for.
In the rest area of Yoshiyama High School.
Superintendent of Yoshiyama, almost unbelieving looked at the team of Seidou High School on the opposite dugout.
"How can the gap be so big!"
Now that the game has reached the fifth inning, the score of the game is 6:0.
At the beginning of the game, the Ace pitcher of Yoshiyama High School barely survived three innings under the covering of the fielder.
In the first three innings, Seidou High School did not score.
With such a result, the supervision of Yoshiyama High School was quite satisfied.
In the first round, he had clearly realized the horror of Seidou High School, and at the same time, he had realized the huge gap between them and Seidou High School.
After being grouped into the death group, the Coach of Yoshiyama who originally had too much hope of winning and reaching the next round, lowered his wishes for this game by a lot.
If they really have a chance, of course, they also hope to defeat Seidou High School, win the victory, and advance to the top sixteen of Koshien.
But with self-awareness, he also made a second set of plans.
That is, if the first plan doesn't work, they will try to show the characteristics of Yoshiyama High School players as much as possible.
Therefore, in the first three innings, Yoshiyama High School's defense was not easy. But the performance of the players of Yoshiyama High School was very good.
The problem was in the fourth inning.
At the beginning of the fourth inning, Yuuki Tetsuya, the fourth Batter hit the outfield long hit.
Such a neat blow directly stunned the pitcher of Yoshiyama.
The situation turned into a no Out, runner at second base.
"Fifth Batter, left fielder, Sawamura-kun."
In this game, Superintendent Kataoka did not intend to let Sawamura take the pitcher's mound.
Therefore, as a matter of course, he was transferred back to the position of the core lineup.
"During the pitchers relay, I hope you can also contribute to the team on the strike zone."
The day before the competition, Coach Kataoka said that to Sawamura when he assigned tasks to the players of Seidou High School.
On the strike zone.
Sawamura kept his eyes open, staring at the Yoshiyama Ace on the pitcher's mound.
The bat in his hand was gripped tightly. The stance is wide open, and the will to hit is very high.
Perhaps the catcher of Yoshiyama High School also thought that Sawamura in this stance was not easy to mess with. When he assigned the ball to the pitcher, he even asked the pitcher to throw an offensive Four-Ball.
The plan is good!
If a pitcher at Yoshiyama High School, really did that. Even Sawamura has no good way to deal with it.
It's a pity that the pitcher of Yoshiyama High School has been completely frightened by Yuuki's swing before. Not all the balls were thrown to the corners of the strike zone.
On the third pitch after two Balls, his accuracy was a little off and the pitch went into the strike zone.
'Why?'
If the catcher of Yoshiyama High School could have bigger eye sockets, maybe his eyeballs would fly out.
From the analyzed data they collected before, the most difficult Batter at Seidou High School was, of course, Yuuki Tetsuya, the fourth Batter.
The second is the superstar on the strike zone in front of him right now, who caused a sensation just by throwing for one game.
Sawamura Eijun!
In the opening game of Koshien, many players from Seidou High School became famous in the first battle.
For example, Yuuki Tetsuya who can win an outfield long hit from a bad grounder, the super-fast runner Kuramochi, The Monster, Furuya, who has the fastest ball speed in high school reaching 154 km/h…
No matter what happened to them before, they all became famous in one match.
Before, even the most famous of the third year was the captain. And he was only famous in the West Tokyo area at most, plus professional baseball scouts.
Baseball fans across the country, don't know who is Yuuki Tetsuya.
But after the opening match of Koshien, everything changed.
The Captain of Steel, Yuuki Tetsuya is now famous nationwide.
This is the greatness of the stage of Koshien. Players can rely on it to become famous in one match!
The rest of the players in Seidou are also in the same situation.
The only exception is probably Sawamura.
Although before, most baseball fans did not know the detailed achievements of Sawamura, that didn't stop them from hearing Sawamura's name.
Sawamura was really making too much noise in the Kanto Tournament.
And in the opening battle of Koshien, Sawamura just proved that he is worthy of the title of the Demon King.
Anyway, back to the game.
The catcher of Yoshiyama High School was stunned when he saw the ball flying to the strike zone.
He really didn't understand why his partner would choose to have a showdown with a batter like Sawamura right now.
'Isn't this totally unnecessary?'
The ending was the same as the catcher of Yoshiyama High School guessed.
Facing the sweet ball that was thrown to the center of the strike zone, Sawamura Eijun showed no mercy.
He directly swung the bat in his hand and hit the ball with all of his power.
Ping!
After the small white ball was hit, it streaked across the sky like a shooting star, and then fell to the stands.
"Home run!"
"Two-run home run!!"
Sawamura Eijun hit another home run in the second round at Koshien.
Seidou High School led 2:0.
Sawamura didn't know it at the time, but his record is unknowingly tied with the home run record for a first-year Batter at Koshien.
One more Home run and he will break the record for first-year batters at Koshien.
For others, this can be said to be a good resume and a great Honor.
But for the Maou Sawamura, it is really normal.
Even Miyamoto, the head of his fan club, was very indifferent after hearing the news from the commentator.
"For the Lord Demon King, it's trivial!"
Sawamura has been a record-breaker since his debut.
Now he is just one of the refreshed items.
…