Chapter 178: Changeup!

Pop!

"Strike!"

The Osaka Kiryu Eighth Batter swung and missed, but Miyuki saw the trajectory of the swing very clearly. Sure enough, after so many innings, even the lower-order batters had begun to adapt to Huangqian Yangyi's pitch speed. Although Miyuki believed that even if Huangqian Yangyi kept pitching like this until the end of the game, he would at most give up one or two runs, this was the Koshien final; they could not afford to gamble, as one or two runs could decide the outcome of the game.

Returning the baseball to Huangqian Yangyi, Miyuki took a deep breath and immediately signaled for a Changeup with his right hand.

Whoosh~

Huangqian Yangyi took a deep breath almost in sync with Miyuki. Using this Changeup, which had been sealed away for several months, for the first time in an official game—and a final at that—Huangqian Yangyi was also extremely excited at this moment.

Changing his grip to that of a Circle Changeup, Huangqian Yangyi looked at the batter, then lifted his leg and whipped his arm forward.

The batter's focus was also incredibly sharp at this moment; once a pitch exceeding 150 km/h had the slightest hesitation, the opportunity would be lost, and the swing speed had to be fast enough!

Zoom!

The baseball, like an arrow released from a string, rapidly left his fingertips and flew toward the batter.

Seeing this, the batter stepped out without hesitation, and the bat in his hands swung with lightning speed.

However, just after the bat had swung halfway, the batter felt the speed of the baseball was abnormally slow, as if time had been stretched at this moment. The batter widened his eyes, looking at this scene in disbelief; he even suspected he was hallucinating.

In the batter's eyes, the world seemed to have been pressed with a slow-motion button; everything became slow and clear. He could even clearly see the baseball flying slowly through the air, while his own bat had already swung through empty space, and his swinging posture had already deformed.

In the first instant, a thought flashed through the batter's mind: a wild pitch? Otherwise, how could such a situation occur?

However, before this thought could linger in his mind for too long, the baseball had already streaked past his eyes and flown into Miyuki's glove.

Only then did the batter come to his senses as if waking from a dream. He stared in astonishment at the baseball in Miyuki's hand and muttered, "A Changeup!"

The entire audience was stunned at this moment, as if time had stopped flowing. From the start of the regional tournament, all the way to Koshien, and up until this final, they had never seen Huangqian Yangyi use any pitch other than a Fastball and a Slider.

At the beginning, some people speculated whether Huangqian Yangyi was deliberately hiding his strength. However, until the Koshien semi-finals ended, no other pitch type had appeared.

This also led fans and the public to believe that it must be because Huangqian Yangyi had not been in high school for long, and because time was tight, he hadn't had time to learn more pitch types. After all, for a pitcher, mastering multiple pitch types requires a great deal of time and energy to practice.

But in the eyes of the fans, Huangqian Yangyi's terrifying Fastball and bizarre Cutter Slider were already enough to make opponents fearful. These two pitch types had already demonstrated Huangqian Yangyi's formidable strength; who would still demand that a First Year rookie master more pitch types?

Yet, just when everyone thought the game would proceed according to the established script, Huangqian Yangyi gave everyone an unexpected surprise in the final—he actually used a Changeup!

What was even more surprising was that the speed of this Changeup was only 124 km/h! Compared to his terrifying Fastball, this speed could simply be called ridiculously slow.

"Ohhh!!!"

"Huangqian!!"

After the fans reacted, they stood up and shouted toward the field.

In West Tokyo, inside the Inashiro Industrial cafeteria, the originally lively atmosphere became abnormally heavy because of Huangqian Yangyi's Changeup. The Inashiro players all wore expressions of disbelief, as if they had eaten something foul.

"Damn chestnut-haired monster! He didn't even use his full strength when playing against us!" Narumiya Mei widened his eyes, his teeth nearly ground to dust.

Seeing this, Harada Masatoshi spoke up immediately: "It seems that Seido must have decided from the very beginning to hide this Changeup until a critical moment."

However, Narumiya Mei did not buy it, retorting indignantly: "Huh? What does that mean! Wasn't the game against us critical? We are Inashiro! When have we ever been looked down upon like this!" His words were filled with dissatisfaction and anger toward Seido.

Facing Narumiya Mei's questioning, Harada Masatoshi shook his head helplessly and explained: "This isn't looking down on you; it was just a risky choice by Seido. They might have thought that in the game against us, the moment to use the Changeup hadn't arrived yet."

Although he spoke calmly, Harada Masatoshi's heart was also feeling a sense of displeasure. Compared to Narumiya Mei, he felt the strength of Inashiro more deeply and held more affection for it; he had never imagined that one day another team would not use their full strength when playing against them.

"Autumn! We must get revenge in the autumn!" Narumiya Mei said.

"Mm, train hard; your pitching is not a bit inferior to his!" Harada Masatoshi said.

Ever since losing to Seido in the summer, although the Inashiro Third Years remained on the team to train, they were effectively in a state of retirement.

Although their jersey numbers hadn't been updated, everyone knew that Narumiya Mei was their future ace.

At this moment, in the Seibo High School dugout, the composure originally on the Seibo Manager's face had become heavy. Before this, his thoughts were the same as everyone else's: he believed Huangqian Yangyi had no other pitch types, and the tactical arrangement against Huangqian Yangyi was aimed at exhausting his stamina and waiting for a good pitch to hit.

After all, no matter who it was, even the most formidable pitcher could not guarantee they could maintain their control for the entire game, especially a power pitcher like Huangqian Yangyi; as long as they waited patiently, an opportunity would surely arise.

The game's development was just as the Seibo Manager had expected; only at the start of the fifth inning, Huangqian Yangyi's pitching had already begun to fluctuate, and they had gained an opportunity to score.

However, at this critical moment, the opponent brought out a new weapon!

A Changeup!

The Seibo Manager felt miserable inside; the Changeup itself was not scary.

But the difficulty lay in the fact that this was Huangqian Yangyi's Changeup—124 km/h!

It was a difference of more than 30 km/h from his top speed. With such a large gap, once the two were used in combination, it would be absolutely devastating to the batter's hitting rhythm.

Take the batter on the field, for example; he had already begun to get used to Huangqian Yangyi's pitch speed, but at this moment, a Changeup came out and he was completely bewildered. He had seen Changeups before, but he had truly never seen one this slow, with such a large drop in speed.