Once everyone had completed their attacks, it was Sawamura and Furuya's turn.
The two were eager, changed their equipment, and walked onto the batter's box.
"Can I be their practice pitcher?" Kawakami suddenly asked when it was Sawamura and Furuya's turn for batting practice.
'Hmm?'
Coach Kataoka looked at him with mixed feelings.
"Are you sure about this?" Coach Kataoka's gaze was quite intimidating. At first, Kawakami hesitated when faced with it. Just as he was about to retreat, his inner unwillingness emerged again, and his gaze became increasingly firm in the end.
"Yes sir! I'm sure and ready."
Nowadays, almost everyone knows about the Demon King Sawamura, the rookie Monster Furuya, and the Ace substitute, Tanpa-senpai!
As one of the four pitchers, Kawakami's presence is getting lower and lower.
Even though Tanpa has already retired, his presence hasn't increased much. For the young man who was waiting for his era to come, Kawakami felt it was already passing by him. Not wanting to waste his years here in vain, he could no longer remain silent.
"If you insist, then do it." Coach Kataoka said flatly.
The batting test started with pitches from the pitching machine, with ball speeds of 130, 135, 140, 145, and 150 km/h respectively. (80, 83, 87, 90, 93 mph)
Since the third-year Senpais left, Seidou's batting lineup has dropped several notches in level. But even with their current members, hitting the balls from the pitching machine out of the park is not a problem at all.
There are differences between elite Famous Schools and ordinary high schools.
The gap in training facilities is enough to decide many things. When Sawamura and his friends formed the Akagi Middle School baseball team, if they hadn't received sponsorships to get more tools and facilities for training and practicing, it would have been difficult for them to grow up so quickly.
If the lineup had only Sawamura to rely on, Akagi might have found it difficult to win any title, even if it was just in the softball league competition.
At Seidou High School, it's almost natural to use a pitching machine for batting practice.
No pitcher has unlimited stamina to meet the hitting training demands of a main force player anytime, anywhere. This is where the pitching machine's role becomes more apparent.
Adjusting the ball speed, and adjusting breaking balls.
The pitching machine is like an all-purpose pitcher, not only allowing players to familiarize themselves with the hitting feel but also simulating the opponent's pitcher...
The batters at Seidou High School have already adapted to all kinds of pitches thrown by the pitching machine and naturally handle them well.
This applies to everyone else, not to mention Sawamura and Furuya.
Since the third-year Senpais retirement from the team, Furuya's presence has become stronger and stronger. He is not only Sawamura's main substitute but also one of the team's best hitters.
In terms of importance, he even surpasses most of the other players.
Furuya has a natural intuition for hitting. When hitting balls from the pitching machine with Sawamura, Sawamura's bat never misses. Furuya occasionally misses, but their final scores are almost the same.
Sawamura mainly gets more outfield hits, with only two home runs.
On the other hand, Furuya is the opposite, with almost half of his hits being home runs or outfield hits.
Watching Furuya hit a home run, the players of Seidou High School felt it was surreal.
"This guy, has he become this strong now?" Kuramochi chuckled and commented.
If Sawamura had such a performance, Kuramochi would have found it relatively easier to accept. When one person creates too many miracles, others grow accustomed to him creating miracles.
Teammates who were with Sawamura were already baptized by this feeling many times. They had become familiar with Sawamura's shock during their daily training.
But even with that in mind, Furuya's performance still amazed people.
Even now, when all the third-year Senpais are brought back, the only one who can hit so many home runs from hitting balls from the pitching machine is Furuya.
"Are you kidding me?" Not to mention others, Sawamura, who was doing batting practice with Furuya, was also very surprised.
Because Furuya's swinging power is strong, he often hit home runs during previous training.
But those were few, for example, two or three out of ten balls.
Although that result was also amazing, considering his strength and the difficulty of the pitching machine's pitches, it was not completely unreasonable.
But now, it is four or even five home runs out of ten!
What's even more terrifying is that Furuya still seems unaware.
He has no idea how amazing his current performance is.
The four managers of Seidou High School were all watching the training session, and seeing Furuya's performance, they were all very fascinated.
"After the formation of the new team, the offensive power will be lacking. It's a pity to keep a talent like Furuya on the bench. It is better to give him a No. 7 position and let him alternate with Sawamura on the mound." Coach Ochiai has supported Furuya wholeheartedly.
He doesn't hide his preference for Furuya. Although Sawamura Eijun's position cannot be shaken, the strategy of using dual pitchers is not wrong with the team being focused on defense.
"Kawakami is also working very hard."
President Ota naturally speaks up for his favorite player.
But his voice is not very loud, even if he is speaking up for his favorite player, the player must have the performance to support him.
Kawakami's strength is still very good. If it is considered alone, he can be ranked among the best in the entire Tokyo area.
It's just that compared to Sawamura and Furuya, it's a bit...
"The new team is based on defense. I admit that Furuya's hitting ability is really good, but his fielding skills are leaving a lot to be desired." Takashima Rei offers her opinion.
"If it's Sawamura-kun on the mound, how many difficult balls does Furuya-kun need to stop in the left field? At most, it's just a high-fly ball. During normal training, Furuya-kun has no problem catching high-fly balls." Ochiai doesn't think there's any problem with this.
From start to finish, Coach Kataoka didn't say a word. He listened carefully to all opinions, but even for him, it was difficult to make a decision.
Promoting Furuya to the main team is like wielding a double-edged sword.
There are advantages, but there are also disadvantages.
Coach Ochiai is right. If Sawamura Eijun is on the mound, there are very few balls that can be hit into the outfield. You may not even have one or several games.
However, what if it happened?
High school student competitions are by elimination matches. If you lose one game, it's all over.
What if there's a fatal mistake? The consequences will be unimaginable.
Of course, this is a rhetorical question.
Even if Furuya is removed and a real outfielder is selected, no one can guarantee that he won't make a mistake too.
No one dares to say that.
While the management were discussing, everyone had already moved the pitching machine down, and Sawamura and Furuya were also starting to walk towards the field.
They will practice against pitchers here.
The opponents are second-year Kawashima, first-year Kaneda, and Kawakami.
"we will now be dealing with real pitchers, not machines. will you be alright?"
The opponents changed from the pitching machine to real people.
When Sawamura and Furuya stepped forward together, Sawamura teased.
Furuya rolled his eyes at Sawamura.
"I won't lose! Whether it's batting or pitching."
Sawamura was not surprised by Furuya's attitude.
As he always knew, this guy is even more stubborn than he looks.
He had always been thinking about how to pull Sawamura down from the Ace position.
"I too won't lose!"
Sawamura smiled lightly.
A duel between two rivals began.
…