Ping!
The small white ball was hit and fell right in the middle of the pitcher and the first baseman.
At that moment, neither the pitcher nor the first baseman had time to reach the spot where the baseball was headed to catch it.
As the ball seemed poised to slip past, Carlos, with his speed, knew that if it got through, he could definitely reach first base safely, or even advance directly to second. Once those legs blasted into action, they resembled a true beast.
"Leave it to me!"
Just as the white ball was about to get away, someone suddenly rushed.
He had appeared behind the first baseman, stepping in for Maezono to intercept the ball.
Snap!
As he caught the ball, Maezono also reacted, running back to first base.
The small white ball was quickly thrown back.
In the nick of time, it flew straight into Maezono's mitt.
Snap!
"OUT!"
At that moment, Carlos was only two steps away from reaching first base.
"Wow, the second baseman actually caught that ball!"
"Did you see that? After the ball hit the ground, it took an irregular grounder."
"Of course, I saw it; the baseball curved right behind the first baseman."
"I didn't expect such a lucky ball to be stopped."
"Looks like luck has abandoned Inajitsu today."
"That's a bit early to say."
"Early? Didn't you see that Seidou now only has five Outs left and is about to win?"
Just five Outs.
Seidou High School had a four-point lead.
Under these circumstances, it seemed that Seidou High School was practically guaranteed to win.
Of course, at this moment, the players of Inajitsu High School didn't think that way.
"Damn it!"
Carlos muttered in frustration.
He had thought that ball would slip through.
Yet, even with the irregular grounder, Seidou High School's defense held strong.
"Where did Seidou find so many good players?"
The players of Inajitsu High School were frantically discussing this privately.
Whether it was the third years, previous third years, or even the current second years, it seemed that the star players recruited by Seidou High School were few and far between.
Sure, they had one or two every year—like Chris from before, Miyuki from this year, and Sawamura Eijun from last year.
These were all star players with their own flair.
In terms of overall quality or strength, Inajitsu High School players appeared to have the advantage.
But right now, that didn't seem to be the case at all.
Seidou High School's players had unique strengths. It wasn't just the second years like Miyuki, Kuramochi, and Shiratsu.
Even the first years, Toujou and Kominato, showed remarkable resilience.
Not to mention the Ace Sawamura Eijun and the monster pitcher Furuya.
'What the hell!' Carlos exclaimed unexpectedly.
This complaint of his wouldn't affect the next batter.
After the Out, Shirakawa stepped into the batter's box.
He approached the box without urgency.
Even though they were four runs behind and only five Outs away from defeat, he remained calm and composed, facing Kawakami on the mound.
This is the mentality of a star player.
Having great power is one thing, but being able to exert that power when it's needed is another.
From this perspective, Shirakawa truly lived up to his title as a star player.
Facing the calm and prepared Shirakawa, Miyuki found himself in a dilemma.
Currently, the two batters who were most adept against Kawakami were Shirakawa and Inajitsu's catcher, Tadano.
'When facing these two, we had to be especially cautious.'
Having faced setbacks before, Miyuki knew it wouldn't be easy to handle him again.
He hesitated.
It wasn't that he lacked solutions for Shirakawa, but with Kawakami on the mound, his options were limited.
'However, there were still possibilities.'
With one Out and no one on base, they had a considerable advantage.
'This was a moment when we can take some risks.'
Determined, Miyuki began to call for some tricky corner pitches for Kawakami.
He intended to use the edge of the strike zone to challenge Shirakawa.
And it worked.
"STRIKE!"
"STRIKE!"
Initially, Shirakawa struggled, missing two Strikes in a row and nearly getting struck out.
Two Strikes, no Balls, the batter is chased.
But then he quickly adapted, realizing that Miyuki was also planning to use corner balls to settle the score.
After all, Seidou already had one out in hand, and there was no one on base for Inajitsu.
Formally speaking, even if Kawakami threw four balls now, the outcome wouldn't be unacceptable to Seidou's players.
They could even face it calmly.
Shirakawa wasn't one to be taken lightly either. Once he saw through Miyuki's plan, he quickly adjusted his approach.
"FOUL!"
"FOUL!"
"BALL!!"
He sent all the pitches that bordered the strike zone flying out of bounds.
Choosing to tangle with the pitcher.
Soon, the count turned to two Balls and two strikes.
It was like a gamble on both sides, neither willing to concede.
In the end, Kawakami made a control error. The ball landed close to the center of the strike zone.
Shirakawa seized this opportunity and hit the ball.
Ping!
After the small white ball was hit, it flew into a gap in the defense.
"YEAAAAH!!"
"HERE IT IS!!!"
"INAJITSU'S COMEBACK!!"
"GO INAJITSU!!!"
"INAJITSU!!"
Shirakawa reached the first base.
One Out, with a runner on first.
Miyuki didn't show much discouragement at this result.
"There's nothing we can do about it."
He had pitched nearly ten consecutive balls, and it was unrealistic to expect Kawakami not to make a mistake.
He had just faced Shirakawa head-on to test their luck.
To see if Kawakami would mess up first or if Shirakawa would falter.
The result, of course, was that Kawakami fell short.
This was unavoidable against a batter who had a natural advantage over him.
The current situation was not unacceptable.
Next was the key moment.
Then Narumiya stepped into the batter's box.
According to Miyuki's original plan, any Inajitsu player reaching base was fine, except for Narumiya.
This wasn't due to any personal bias against Narumiya but was dictated by the situation on the field.
Narumiya Mei was undoubtedly the biggest contributor to Inajitsu High School's revival.
If he performed outstandingly at this moment, Inajitsu's momentum would soar, becoming uncontrollable.
To prevent such a scenario, it was crucial to disrupt the opponent's momentum here.
Miyuki was fully aware of this.
However, things didn't unfold as he had hoped.
Ping!
In the end, the small ball was caught by Narumiya and was smashed far.
The ball landed in left field.
Sawamura sprinted crazily toward the spot where the baseball was falling but couldn't catch up.
The ball landed, resulting in a long hit.
Narumiya naturally reached first base, while Shirakawa, who had acted early, rounded second and headed straight for third.
The situation turned into one out, with runners on first and third.
Inajitsu High School had a fantastic scoring opportunity.
And now, their batter was the fourth batter, Yamaoka!
PANG!!
As if swept away by a tornado, the white ball was bombarded by Yamaoka and soared far.
The ball soared and ultimately flew out of the Koshien stadium.
At that moment, the crowd fell silent.
At that moment, the dynamics of the game had changed dramatically.
Seidou High School, which had once held a four-point lead, was now only one point ahead.
The score on the field became 9:8.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"
"THIS GAME IS CRAZY!!!!!!"
"I AM GLAD I ATTENDED!!!!"
"THIS IS THE BEST!!!!"
"YOU CAN'T MOVE YOUR EYES AWAY!!!"
"INAJITSU!"
"INAJITSU!!!"
The sudden turn of events ignited the entire stadium.
Everyone was eager, anticipating further changes on the field.
The entire Inajitsu High School team was in a state of frenzy.
At this moment, they felt unstoppable, as if they could conquer anything in their path.
On the other side, the atmosphere at Seidou High School was frighteningly tense and gloomy.
'It is time!'
In the dugout—the Head Coach— Kataoka made his move.
He stood up without saying a word.
Ping!
Immediately afterward, Tadano hit a double.
Kawakami, who had been performing well, collapsed when the score narrowed to just one point.
'Both Furuya and Kawakami have done well, now it is your turn!'
Kawakami was so shaken that he couldn't even get the ball into the strike zone.
Seidou High School seemed to be facing disaster.
Even though they were still one point ahead, their pitcher was collapsing.
The situation was precarious.
'You know your job right?'
At that moment, Coach Kataoka, who had stood up, took a few steps forward and signaled for a substitution.
"Seidou High School requests a player change; outfielder Sawamura Eijun, please take the mound."
'You are the Ace of Seidou, lead the team to victory!!'
Then everyone watched as Sawamura walked onto the mound for Seidou High School.
At this moment, there was no smile on his face; instead, he took a deep breath, then opened his arms and shouted loudly.
"BALLS WILL COME FLYING!!! EVERYONE AT THE BACK PLEASE TAKE CARE OF ME!!!!"
At this moment, the audience and the players from Inashiro Industrial High School were still in shock.
They never expected that Sawamura, who hadn't pitched in the last two games, would be substituted at this moment.
How could this be?
At that moment, they distinctly heard Sawamura's words.
Who will claim the championship of the Spring Tournament?
…