"Please take care of me!"
Sawamura greeted the Coach and his Shisho with great seriousness, appearing humble and polite, without any unnecessary aggressiveness.
Unfortunately, his pretense didn't achieve the intended effect.
Not only was the catcher Chris unaffected, but even Tanpa on the pitcher's mound was also full of fighting spirit.
'Truly worthy of a seasoned senpai; your demeanor is indeed different.'
Sawamura knew that this time, he must not be Out easily.
With the retirement of Captain Tetsuya and the other third-year Senpais, Sawamura's importance to the new team was becoming increasingly apparent.
Not only in pitching but also in hitting, Sawamura had clearly become a core player for the new team.
Being a core player has its benefits and drawbacks.
If the core player, Sawamura Eijun, was easily dealt with by the opponents, the other batters might start to think:
The opponents are monsters of that level, it's natural that we can't hit the ball.
Such a negative mindset is very detrimental to the offense as a whole. Sawamura certainly didn't want this to happen, so he had to make a statement in the batter's box.
This is his role as a key player.
"Although I really want to face you and Tanpa-senpai several times and experience the power of your combined play from the batter's box, I have my own task now and can't play around with you," Sawamura muttered.
The catcher Chris looked up in surprise upon hearing this.
As expected, Sawamura Eijun adopted a bunting stance.
With two Outs, Sawamura's stance made his intentions clear.
He wants to get a guaranteed hit!
Previously, Sawamura Eijun had almost never failed when adopting such a stance. (There were a few rare instances, but those were generally negligible.)
His current stance clearly indicated his aim was to secure a hit, no matter what.
'Has he already realized the game situation?'
Chris was not surprised by Sawamura's keen intuition. In fact, he would have been more surprised if Sawamura had not shown such performance.
In the face of Sawamura Eijun's '100% guaranteed hit' stance, Chris, the catcher, remained calm. As Sawamura's previous partner, no one knew Sawamura's strength better than him.
Many people said that Sawamura was able to perform so well because, as a first-year freshman, other players were not yet familiar with his skills and means.
If Chris were to evaluate this, it would be with a few simple words: "You're underestimating him!"
Being the closest to Sawamura, Chris had a better understanding of his prowess.
Of course, this doesn't mean that Sawamura is invincible. With the right strategy, defeating him is not entirely impossible.
Firstly, the '100% guaranteed hit' stance is not without its blind spots.
'First pitch: Straight ball to the low inside course!'
Even Tanpa Koichiro, who trusted all of Chris's previous advice, couldn't help but doubt his own eyes when he saw Chris's signal.
Had he seen it wrong?
The answer was no, he had not seen it wrong. Chris responded to Tanpa's doubts with a resolute gaze.
'Trust me!'
Faced with Chris's confident gaze, Tanpa Koichiro felt the blood rushing through his veins. Since the day he became a freshman, he had dreamed of partnering with Chris.
Now that the dream had come true, they would combine forces to take down the terrifying opponent before them.
At this moment, Tanpa put all his strength into his pitch and threw the white ball with full force.
Whoosh!
The white ball shot through the 18-meter(60 ft) distance like a laser, appearing above home plate in the blink of an eye.
Sawamura, standing in the batter's box, swiftly pulled back his bat and then swung hard.
Ping!
The white ball was struck, tracing a nearly perfect arc as it traveled like an unusually long bridge, eventually landing on the ground.
"FOUL!"
The baseball was only about 20 centimeters(7 in) from the first base side's foul line. (Since Sawamura is a left-handed batter, an inside pitch is close to the first base side.)
'It was spotted.'
As expected, the first to detect the flaw in Sawamura's '100% guaranteed hit' stance was, after all, someone from Seidou.
"How did you figure it out?" Sawamura asked Chris directly, even during the game.
In his time in the Major League, Sawamura's hitting stance had been cracked before. If not, with just this technique, he would have already become the most outstanding hitter in history.
The main reason it was figured out in the Major League was that Sawamura used it too frequently. There was a time when his performance in the batter's box improved dramatically due to this stance, he was climbing the stairs of importance of the batter with this stance.
Ultimately, he became the target of many experts' scrutiny, and his flaws were quickly discovered.
However, in this lifetime, Sawamura was extremely cautious. He had not let any obvious flaw appear in his '100% guaranteed hit', but he still couldn't escape Chris's keen eyes.
"It's actually very simple. If this stance were perfect, would you use it so infrequently?"
Sawamura smiled wryly, "No!"
He hadn't expected that his own Shisho was now using psychology. Even in this lifetime, he still felt the gap between himself and Chris was enormous.
It seemed that they were not playing the same sport from beginning to end.
"So, this hitting stance must have its flaws. As long as you understand this principle, you can quickly deduce the conclusion. You use this stance mainly against pitchers with exceptional breaking balls. What are the characteristics of these pitchers? First, they don't pitch to the corners because such breaking balls are more likely to go foul. Second, such breaking balls usually lack power."
'As expected!'
Even though Sawamura respected Chris, he had no intention of letting Tanpa on the mound off easily.
As the core of the team, he had to perform when it mattered. Sawamura's '100% guaranteed hit' had been smooth sailing before.
But that didn't mean Sawamura had no other methods to hit if he were to abandon this stance.
This time, he spread his legs wide, held the bat high, and kept it shaking gently.
This time he was using his new batting stance.
'Is he already going all out?'
Chris, in the catcher's position, could clearly sense Sawamura's determination and signaled Tanpa on the mound.
'Be extremely careful with every pitch. Give it your all. This batter can hit any pitch in the strike zone. Striking him Out is almost impossible. In this situation, you need to find ways to make him hit the ball poorly. So, pitch decisively and swing your arm completely.'
'Let's go, the second pitch.'
Seeing Chris's signal, Tanpa felt his blood surge like a mighty river.
'I can do it, I must solve Sawamura.'
His resolute thoughts made his actions unstoppable.
He lifted his leg high and pitched the white ball with a whoosh.
Whoosh!
The ball came whizzing in, almost in the same position as before.
'A Straight ball? No, it should be a Splitter.'
Sawamura's mind didn't have a clear thought but he sensed this during the swing.
This pitch should be a splitter.
He guessed right!
Chris wouldn't let Tanpa pitch a Straight ball in the same spot.
So, this pitch must be a Splitter.
Having guessed the pitch correctly, Sawamura swung the bat in a vertical swing.
Ping!
The white ball was struck high and hovered into the air.
Pak!
It finally landed on the right field ground.
Sawamura seized the opportunity and dashed to second base.
After two Outs, the first hit from the New team appeared.
The white ball landed in the outfield. Eijun Sawamura, sprinting with all his might, was as fast as Kuramochi.
By the time the outfielder relayed the ball, Sawamura had already reached second base.
"SAFE!"
With that, the situation was now two Outs with a runner on second base.
The inning for the New team should have ended, but Sawamura's miraculous hit brought a twist. Even though there were two Outs, with Sawamura on second base and the team's fourth batter coming up, the New team still had a chance to score.
At this moment, the game started to get more heated up.
"Fourth batter, catcher, Miyuki!"
…