Chapter 168: Weakness?

Seeing Dong Qingguo's look of indignation, Matsuki Musashi also felt heavy-hearted; he had thought this changeup would resolve the opponent, but in the end, Dong Qingguo still managed to track the ball and hit a single.

Is this what a monster is? Truly impressive!

As Dong Qingguo reached first base, the Seido fans placed their expectations on the Fifth Batter, Huangqian Yangyi, and the thunderous cheering erupted once again.

Huangqian Yangyi stepped into the batter's box with his bat, first smiling as he locked eyes with the catcher, then focusing all his attention on Matsuki Musashi. This pitcher's delivery had almost no flaws to speak of—ball speed, ball movement, pitch variety, he had it all. After two days of study, Huangqian Yangyi had failed to find any obvious weaknesses in the opponent's pitching, leaving him no choice but to go head-to-head.

If there was anything to target, it had to be the catcher; compared to the visible talent of the pitcher Matsuki Musashi, the Osaka Kiryu starting catcher seemed far more mediocre.

In previous games, whenever Matsuki Musashi stood on the pitcher's mound, the control of the pitch calling was almost entirely in his own hands; the catcher gave the impression of being more like a ball-receiving machine, lacking proactive thought and strategy.

Looking at it from this point, perhaps it was because Matsuki Musashi's strength was too formidable, earning him the highest trust from his teammates, or perhaps it was because his own personality was too confident and overbearing.

If it were the latter, perhaps something could be done to target that.

With a plan in mind, Huangqian Yangyi prepared to bat.

As Matsuki Musashi threw the ball, Huangqian Yangyi swung his bat immediately, with no intention of watching a pitch to observe.

Whoosh!

The bat swept through, a swing and a miss!

This was an outside high-speed slider.

"Strike!"

Failing to make contact on the first swing, a look of annoyance immediately appeared on Huangqian Yangyi's face.

Then, for the second pitch, after Matsuki Musashi threw the little white ball, Huangqian Yangyi immediately judged from the ball's flight path that it was a vertical curveball, and he swept his bat toward the bottom of the strike zone.

Thwack!

"Strike!"

Hearing the umpire's voice, Huangqian Yangyi wore an even more surprised expression, as if that last pitch had caused him a great shock.

Noticing this scene, Matsuki Musashi's brow twitched, but it quickly smoothed out. It seemed his pitching was a great burden for this First Year, too. Well, no matter how much of a genius he was, the pitchers the opponent had encountered before couldn't compare to him. Even if he could hit home runs off others, standing on the pitcher's mound now was Matsuki Musashi, hailed as the strongest pitcher in this year's Koshien.

Moreover, when studying the game footage of Seido before, they had discovered that in terms of batting, Huangqian Yangyi's power was not as great as Dong Qingguo's, his explosiveness was not as good as Yuki Tetsuya's, and his ability to select pitches was even inferior to that short guy's.

Yet the opponent could repeatedly hit singles, or even home runs, which left the people of Osaka Kiryu quite conflicted. Judging by his record, this person's batting was very strong, but after a detailed analysis, it gave one a feeling that he was actually quite weak.

Having pitched two balls himself just now, and seeing the troubled expression on Huangqian Yangyi's face, Matsuki Musashi felt he had found the answer.

Whether it was power, explosiveness, pitch selection, or batting technique, Huangqian Yangyi couldn't compare to the others on his team, but his strength perhaps lay in his ability to track and follow the ball.

Such a batter would generally swing later than other types of batters; as such, the effect of a changeup on Huangqian Yangyi might not be as good.

On the contrary, he needed to ramp up the ball speed!

Just then, the catcher gave the signal—it was a changeup!

Matsuki Musashi shook his head; he urgently needed to verify his hypothesis now, using the fastest fastball he could throw to test Huangqian Yangyi. If the opponent couldn't keep up, it was highly likely that his ball speed exceeded the opponent's range of ability. For this type of batter, who naturally swung later than others, it would be even easier to swing and miss if the ball speed was too fast.

Not long after, a four-seam fastball aimed at Huangqian Yangyi's chest came flying in.

So fast!

Huangqian Yangyi's pupils shook, but this was exactly what he wanted!

Staring intently at the little white ball, Huangqian Yangyi used his abnormal dynamic vision to instantly judge the trajectory and the point of impact. The bat swept out—only a "bang" was heard.

"Jianjie!!"

The little white ball flew to the foul side of first base. Seeing this, Huangqian Yangyi's heart tightened; he hadn't hit the fastball he had deliberately baited well!

No!

This ball was a bit too fast!

Sure enough, when Huangqian Yangyi looked at the radar gun, the 152 on it was extremely glaring.

Matsuki Musashi had broken through his own limits, throwing a speed he had never reached before, and a speed Huangqian Yangyi had never hit before!

His own dynamic vision had kept up, but his swing speed hadn't!

This guy—Huangqian Yangyi looked at Matsuki Musashi—he had been thinking about tricking the opponent into throwing a fastball, but instead, his own weakness had been exposed!

"Trouble!"

In the dugout, Miyuki frowned as he watched Huangqian Yangyi; in all of Seido, he was the one who understood Huangqian Yangyi the best.

On the batting side, Huangqian Yangyi had relied almost entirely on his dynamic vision up until now, but now, the opponent's ball speed exceeded Huangqian Yangyi's range of ability. Even if he could see the trajectory and the point of impact clearly, it wouldn't work if his body couldn't keep up.

"Don't worry, Matsuki Musashi can't throw at that speed every pitch," Chris said with a smile, holding his little notebook.

"That's right," Tanaka Wataru nodded, "Perhaps we can conversely hope he uses that much effort to throw every pitch, and wear him out!"

Hearing this, Miyuki nodded. He had been a bit flustered by concern; the current situation might not be as serious as he feared. Matsuki Musashi hitting 152 km/h was his limit, or even beyond his limit; he absolutely could not keep throwing that fast every pitch.

In other words, the opponent's move was actually meaningless. Even if he had discovered Huangqian Yangyi's current weakness in batting, he would ultimately gain nothing, or even suffer the consequences of his own actions.

On the pitcher's mound, seeing his fastball truly take effect and seeing the shocked expression on Huangqian Yangyi's face, Matsuki Musashi knew he had guessed correctly!

As long as his ball speed was fast enough, this kind of batting from Huangqian Yangyi was nothing to worry about!

In the batter's box, Huangqian Yangyi calmed down after the initial surprise.

His thoughts were the same as Chris's: the opponent couldn't keep throwing at a speed that exceeded his own abilities as a pitcher, and even if he did, there was a high probability his control would become unstable, and he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long.

All he had to do now was strive to keep up with the ball, preferably making the opponent keep the idea that he could resolve him with high-speed pitches.