“Take them out”
“Don’t forget to pace yourself”.
Cheered Yakushi’s dugout seeing Sanada come to the mound.
“Sanada, send them all my way! I’ll stop them for sure”, said Raichi.
“I’m too scared to send them your way. You might make errors. No, seriously”, said Sanada.
Masuko was in the batter’s box and was shocked to see Sanada’s pitch. He was walked to the 1st base as Sanada threw 4 balls.
Jun was up to bat next.
“Thank god, I don’t have to face the clean-up hitters yet”, thought Sanada.
“DON’T YOU DARE UNDERESTIMATE, ME! ORAH!”, said Jun as he walked to the batter’s box.
“Please take good care of me”, said Jun respectfully bowing toward the umpire and the catcher.
The Catcher and the umpire were shocked to see Jun’s change of attitude.
“ORAH!”, said Jun as he swung and missed. He was struck out.
“Damn it”, said Jun walking back to the dugout.
“His pitches are messed up”, said Jun.
“What do you mean by ‘messed up’ ”, said Miyuki.
“You’ll know when you go to the batter’s box”, said Jun.
Rei got up and grabbed his metal bat.
“Good Luck!”, said Sawamura.
“Don’t let us down”, said Miyuki playfully.
“Hello”, said Rei bowing to the catcher and umpire as he took his batting stance.
“I heard from the other catchers, that #11 hits the ball when it is the most unexpected and that he makes the ball go to the back of the field every time”, thought the catcher.
Sanada threw a high shoot ball to the outside corner.
“Strike!”, said the umpire as he saw the catcher catch the pitch.
“HAHAHA…”, laughed Sanada nervously seeing Rei not even flinch at the pitch.
Rei knew that this time he was facing a talented pitcher, so he tried his best to focus on this at bat.
Seeing the focus Rei had Sanada got excited.
Sanada threw a pitch to the inside.
Rei was fully focused wanting to get a hit, but unexpectedly the ball broke to the left.
As Focused as Rei was on the ball, he swung as hard as he could when he thought the ball was in his range.
The ball was a long hit to the center field.
“Crap”, said Sanada.
Rei ran to the 1st base while Masuko ran to the 2nd base.
Next Kadota was up to bat and the coach instructed him to bunt.
Sanada pitched and Kadota changed bat to a bunt position.
“BUNT!”, yelled Raizou from the dugout.
The ball was bunted near the 3rd base.
Raichi ran to the ball to grab it, but he tripped on his shoelaces and fell on his face.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING RAICHI? THROW IT BACK!”, yelled Raizou.
“I WILL, YOU DAMN FATHER”, said Raichi as he got up and threw the ball to the 1st base.
Kadota was out, Rei and Masuko made it to the Homeplate.
“It’s your fault, that #11 made it home. If it wasn’t for your error, we could have held him back”, said Sanada approaching Raichi.
“HAHAHA”, said Raichi laughing it off.
Shirasu came to bat next. He was struck out by Sanada’s tricky pitches.
[Score
Yakushi: 0-0-0
Seido: 2-1-2]
“Why can’t you guys hit it”, said Miyuki to Jun and Shirasu.
“I WOULD HAVE HITTEN IT, BUT I WAS CAUGHT OFF GUARD”, said Jun offended.
“Yeah, his pitch breaks really clean”, said Shirasu.
“You guys could say that Sanada pitches like Sawamura”, said Rei.
All of the players glared at Sawamura as they couldn’t believe it.
“WHAT!”, said Sawamura feeling the glares.
“Are you sure”, said Kuramochi as he just heard something ridiculous.
“I mean Sanada is on a whole new level, but their techniques and pitches are similar. If Sawamura improves maybe he could pitch like Sanada in the future”, said Rei
“Now that you say this, I can’t wait to see his future”, said Chris smiling.
“Ahh Master, do you think I can hit a home run”, said Sawamura while swinging a bat.
“Ano BAKA”, said Miyuki.
Chris sighed.
Top of the 4th inning.
Rei continued pitching and struck out all the batters.
In Yakushi’s Dugout.
“If you can guys can’t hit then how are we supposed to score”, said Raizou frustratingly.
“Don’t worry I got this”, said Raichi.
“Shut up, Idiot. We can’t just rely on you. And you’re not even hitting properly anymore”, said Raizou.
“I know but next time I’ll hit a home run”, said Raichi eating a banana.
“Where did you get that banana from”, said Mishima.
Raichi looked away feeling guilty.
“D-don’t tell me it’s mine. GIVE IT TO ME. MONKEY BRAT”, said Mishima.
Bottom of the 4th inning.
Kuramochi was up to bat. He was jammed by Sanada. The ball was a fly to the 2nd baseman.
“How do you feel getting jammed”, said Miyuki playfully.
“Sucks. What a troublesome cutter”, said Kuramochi.
“That’s how Rei’s opponents feel all the time. It doesn’t get old whenever I see them get jammed”, said Miyuki chuckling.
“Thank god, that Rei brat is on our side”, thought Kuramochi.
Ryosuke was up to bat next. He tried bunting but failed.
“2 OUTS!”, said Sanada.
Yuki was up to bat next.
Sanada got nervous just feeling the aura he was emitting.
“Come on”, muttered Yuki.
Sanada grinned and threw his cutter to the outside.
“STRIKE!”, said the umpire.
Seeing the pitch Yuuki got even more focused and changed his posture challenging the pitcher.
In Yakushi’s Dugout.
“Well, this is bad”, said Raizou.
“Why is it bad Coach”, asked Akiba.
“When a batter is challenging a pitcher personally then it’s even harder to get a strike from them. Especially if it’s a batter like Yuuki”, said Raizou.
Back to the field.
Sanada signaled his catcher and told him it was time to use ‘that pitch’ even though it was early, but he was facing Yuuki now so decided to use it.
The catcher nodded.
Sanada threw, ‘A Shuuto’ to the inside.
Yuuki saw the ball coming toward him, it looked like a 2-seamer to him, so he got ready to hit it.
But Yuuki was jammed by the ball because of its spin and break.
The ball was caught by the pitcher.
“OUT!”, said the umpire.
“This definitely isn’t a 2-seamer”, thought Yuuki.
In Seido’s Dugout.
“What was that?”, said Miyuki.
“It’s Shuuto”, said Rei.
“I see…”, said Miyuki sighing.
[Score:
Yakushi: 0-0-0-0
Seido: 2-1-2-0]
Raichi was up to bat next.
“I’ll definitely hit a home run this time”, said Raichi.
“YOU BETTER”, said Raizou.
Miyuki signaled for a low cutter.
Rei nodded and winded up his glove, took his pitching position, swung back his arm with force, and released the ball aiming toward the mitt.
Raichi hit the ball straight to the fence in the right field.
“KEHAHAHA…”, said Raichi as he ran.
Shirasu quickly fields the ball and throws it to the 2nd base.
“LASER”, yelled Sawamura from Seido’s dugout.
“Safe!”, said the umpire.
Riachi safely made it to the 2nd base.
In Yakushi’s Dugout.
“NOT BAD”, said Mishima.
“Keep this up”, said Mino
“We can finally score now”, said Raizou.
