A gust of wind blew through, and the freshly sprouted leaves, unwilling to be destroyed, fell to the ground.
The leaves drifted in front of the players from Seidou, blocking their line of sight.
When they finally drifted away, what was revealed were the astonished faces of the Seidou High School baseball team.
Furuya's pitch had been hit for a home run.
This was something that the Seidou team found extremely difficult to believe.
In their prior impression, Furuya rarely faced such a crisis when pitching.
To be hit for a home run in the first confrontation was something they could count on one hand.
Now, they were watching helplessly as the fourth batter from the Los Angeles team hit the ball out of the park.
They waited for the ball to fly out, and the score changed to 3:1.
It was only then that the Seidou team realized.
It was truly a home run!
It wasn't until this moment that the Seidou team truly felt the terrifying nature of the game.
The opposing team was capable of standing toe-to-toe with the top players from Tokyo.
They were real powerhouses at the pinnacle of the world. At the very least, they were at the top of the world within their age group.
They had entered the match full of confidence, believing that victory was assured.
Even after they had scored three runs, many Seidou players had thought that the Los Angeles players were merely famous, but their real strength might not be so impressive.
After all, they had scored three runs right from the start.
Although they didn't say it aloud, deep down, the Seidou players surely thought so.
Defeating the Los Angeles team was easy!
They hardly played, and they were already leading by three Runs.
If they pushed just a little more, they could easily force the opponent into an irreversible abyss.
This thought had barely taken root when the players from the Los Angeles team immediately demonstrated, through their actions, just how naïve and immature those ideas were.
Carlisle's home run was like a sharp slap to the Seidou players, pulling them out of their fantasies and back into reality.
And this wasn't over. The Los Angeles team's offense was far from finished.
Their fifth batter, Harris, was an exceptionally muscular man, his muscles as hard as iron lumps, giving him a menacing appearance.
Having just given up a home run, it was undoubtedly the most unstable moment for the pitcher.
Facing such a powerful batter was a major headache.
At this moment, Seidou's catcher, Miyuki, was experiencing that headache firsthand.
He eyed the batter in front of him, Harris, the fifth batter for Los Angeles.
There was no doubt that he was a formidable opponent. Unlike Carlisle, Harris wasn't the type of person who used his brain to play, but he was still far from simple.
In Harris's view, there was only one thing: hit the incoming baseball.
There were two players on Seidou with the same view: Furuya and Haruichi.
Although their styles were completely different, both were undeniably powerful batters.
Harris was no different.
The more illogical an opponent was, the harder it was to deal with them.
At this point, Miyuki could only pin his hopes on Furuya.
'Rely on your ability to take care of him!'
'The home run wasn't entirely your fault, so we don't need to dwell on it. What's most important now is to focus on playing the rest of the game.'
Miyuki was decisive in signaling and conveying his thoughts to Furuya.
On the pitcher's mound, Furuya wore a cold expression and said nothing.
Although he was always like this, those who were familiar with him could still easily sense his current mood.
Furuya was a very simple person, and understanding his intentions was not difficult, or rather, relatively easy.
He was furious!
This anger, no one could tell if it was directed at the opponent or at himself.
If he lost control, it was possible for Furuya to snap at any moment.
After all, this guy wasn't without a history of losing control.
For this, Miyuki also came up with an emergency response plan.
Having partnered with Furuya for a while, Miyuki knew how to ignite Furuya's fighting spirit by now.
'Don't let yourself be less than a Kohai!'
Sure enough, after seeing Miyuki's signal, Furuya's entire state immediately changed.
Losing to Sawamura, even someone as inherently stubborn as Furuya knew that challenging him with his current ability was almost hopeless. The gap between them was obvious.
But losing to a Kohai, especially someone like Nishiyama, was something Furuya couldn't accept.
With this mindset, Furuya seemed to go crazy.
His pitching returned to its original, fierce style.
Roaar!
The baseball shot out like a bomb, with overwhelming power.
This took Harris in the Batter's Box completely by surprise.
"How did he suddenly get so fierce? Did he take some performance-enhancing drugs?"
Harris couldn't understand why Furuya had suddenly erupted like this.
All he could see was the baseball flying one after another, catching him off guard.
Harris wanted to adjust his rhythm to hit the ball, but he realized that this wasn't as easy as he thought.
Although Carlisle had managed to read Furuya's pitch rhythm and hit a home run, that didn't mean every player could do the same.
Like Harris.
Although he could hit Furuya's ball, hitting a home run was just out of his reach.
It was simply beyond his abilities.
From Harris's observation, if he wanted to catch up to Furuya's rhythm and hit the ball, he would need at least a second or third round to do so.
Hitting a home run in this round was highly unlikely.
This was a strange situation for him. How could this happen?
When he first came to bat, Harris had felt that Furuya wasn't that fierce.
But now, he found that Furuya was far fiercer than he had imagined.
"Good boy!"
In the Los Angeles team's dugout, their Coach was impressed.
No matter the caliber of the pitcher, being hit for a home run usually had a significant impact.
This was due to two main reasons:
On one hand, pitchers might question whether they were in poor form or whether their pitching habits had been exposed by the opponent.
On the other hand, they might wonder if the opponent was simply too strong, and they didn't have the qualification to compete.
Both of these dilemmas were enough to shake a pitcher to the core.
Therefore, in baseball, when a pitcher gives up a home run, it's not uncommon for them to completely fall apart.
But now, Seidou's pitcher displayed an entirely different temperament.
Even though the ball had been hit out, he remained calm, with his fighting spirit undiminished.
It even seemed like he was invigorated by the home run, becoming even fiercer than before.
"A pitcher with this kind of talent is a one-in-a-hundred prospect!"
In the stands, a middle-aged man in a suit was jotting notes down in a small notebook.
He was a scout from Major League Baseball, usually responsible for evaluating the star players of the Los Angeles team.
Although the overall strength of the Los Angeles team wasn't particularly the best among the fifty states in America, the abilities of players like Carlisle and Conrad were exceptional.
These players had certainly caught the attention of MLB scouts.
The scout had been observing them for some time.
When he heard they were playing an exchange match with Seidou High, he hurried over to investigate.
After observing, he found Carlisle and Conrad's performances were as usual—impressive, but nothing that stood out too much.
It was just their usual standard.
But the other player was different.
That player was none other than Furuya.
Before today's game, this well-dressed scout did not know Furuya.
The person responsible for their team's scouting in Japan was someone else, and he only handled several states in America.
Naturally, he had never heard of any information about Furuya.
Now, after watching Furuya's game, he was truly shocked.
He never expected that Japan had such a hidden baseball talent.
"His pitching rhythm was smooth, his ball power was outstanding, and his pitching velocity was terrifying…"
"Most importantly, this player had a natural big heart. Even when his pitch was hit for a home run, his state was not affected."
"With such talent and a healthy mentality, it would be a shame if he continued to be buried."
As a competent scout, it is essential to have the heart of a talent scout.
This major league scout clearly had his eye on Furuya.
"STRIKE!"
"STRIKE!!"
At this point, the duel on the field came to a conclusion.
After pushing the batter to two Strikes, Furuya finally used his secret weapon.
His Slider.
The baseball whistled as it came, and after reaching the batter's hand, it suddenly dropped.
When the batter had no mental preparation to face such a pitch, it was absolutely impossible to hit the ball, and even making contact was extremely difficult.
The result was clear: the fifth batter, Harris, was struck out.
The following sixth batter didn't have much better luck either.
Although he was as cautious as possible and had even abandoned the idea of getting a long hit, it still couldn't change the fact that he was no match for Furuya.
Roaar!
The pitch came like a volcano erupting, with an overwhelming momentum, roaring towards the batter.
Harris gritted his teeth.
Facing the flying baseball, he swung his bat fiercely.
Paak!
Surprisingly, by shortening his grip on the bat, his hitting precision actually improved.
The bat truly made contact with the baseball, and it looked like it was going to carry the ball out of the park.
But at the moment of impact, the batter was stunned.
He felt that his bat was no longer obeying his commands.
Both arms were trembling, and he nearly threw the bat out of his hands.
He gritted his teeth and stubbornly clenched the bat, pushing the baseball out.
The baseball was sent flying high into the air.
The first baseman easily caught it without much effort.
"OUT!"
There was no suspense, a clean and decisive out.
Two Outs, no one on base.
Although in this inning, Seidou's baseball team conceded one point, because of Furuya and Miyuki's perfect performance, they managed to hold on and didn't completely collapse.
Later, they even regained control of the game.
Every action, every move, was predestined.
"STRIKE!"
"FOUL!!"
"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!!!"
Three Outs, offense and defense exchange.
The boy named Furuya, once he fully unleashed his power, was truly formidable.
The batters of the Los Angeles Wind Youth Academy team couldn't resist and were quickly defeated.
In the bottom of the second inning, Seidou's offense began.
At that time, Furuya had just struck out the opponent.
Seidou High School's momentum was soaring.
The teammates also wanted to take advantage of this momentum to quickly expand the lead.
But, as fate would have it, the pitcher Conrad stood on the mound and extinguished the team's hopes.
"STRIKE!"
"STRIKE!!"
"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!"
"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!!"
"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!!!"
Conrad struck out the three batters from Seidou High School consecutively.
The rest area of Seidou High School was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
At this point, they had clearly realized that the level of this match was much higher than they had imagined.
Didn't they see how even the leadoff batter, Kuramochi, was struck out by Conrad without any chance?
The strength he had unleashed was beyond imagination.
It was only at the start that Sawamura and Miyuki had managed to get a hit.
But the others couldn't even handle those tricky pitches and fast speeds.
It was not even on the same level.
On the stands, an elderly fan holding a drink said in excitement:
"I originally thought there was only one dream team, but I didn't expect there to be so many outstanding players. This really is a generation of genius."
This generation belongs to the geniuses!
Later, all those who studied baseball history began to refer to these ten years as the "Generation Of Geniuses."
In these ten years, an overwhelming number of geniuses emerged.
...
T/N: Furuya thankfully held his ground.
Thank you all for reading!!
And I hope you all have a nice day!