Chapter 211: The Evolution of Narumiya Mei

At Jingu Stadium, tens of thousands of spectators had already heated up the atmosphere; although it was only a match in the Spring Metropolitan Tournament, the two teams facing off were the two most powerful teams in West Tokyo today.

The duel between the West Tokyo Overlord and the Prince of Tokyo was also a topic people loved to talk about.

Although this Prince of Tokyo always narrowly lost to Seido's Overlord, people generally believed that Inashiro Industrial, led by Narumiya Mei, was the only team with hope of breaking Huangqian Yangyi's undefeated golden record.

Both teams entered the field, with Seido located on the Third Base side.

After putting down his bag, Huangqian Yangyi turned his head to look at the opposite side, meeting Narumiya Mei's eyes exactly; the two looked at each other across the space, everything understood without a word.

Sorry, little blondie, you're going to lose this match today too.

Chestnut-haired monster! I will definitely defeat you!

Narumiya Mei's eyes revealed a burning fighting spirit; since last year, they had constantly met in various competitions, whether in the semi-finals or the finals.

But every single time, the ones who lost were their Inashiro Industrial.

If it weren't for the fact that seeing Huangqian Yangyi's face still stirred up his unwillingness and fighting spirit, he would have almost gotten used to these days of losing to Seido.

Soon, after both sides finished warming up, the match officially began.

The Spring Metropolitan Tournament, final, the match between Seido High School and Inashiro Industrial High School, officially began.

Top of the first inning, Inashiro Industrial attacked first.

A long-awaited start; the moment Huangqian Yangyi stepped onto the field, familiar shouts came from the stands.

"The pitcher's mound is still the most comfortable as a starter."

Stepping on the clean and tidy pitcher's mound, Huangqian Yangyi smiled and sighed softly.

Tossing the baseball in his hand twice, Huangqian Yangyi looked toward Home Plate, where Inashiro's lead-off batter Carlos had already stepped into the Batter's Box, ready.

This player was extremely explosive, whether in batting or base running; his running speed was even a bit faster than Kuramochi Yoichi's, but because Kuramochi was a left-handed batter, both sides could be considered to have their own advantages.

To deal with Carlos, one had to be careful of him bunting to force his way onto base.

Miyuki glanced at Carlos, then gave the signal.

First pitch, start with a low, outside Fastball to probe and see what the opponent had planned for today.

Huangqian Yangyi nodded, and the baseball shot out like a sharp arrow.

Carlos swung his bat the instant Huangqian Yangyi released the ball; as old rivals, the two had faced each other many times, and Carlos knew well that with Huangqian Yangyi's pitch speed, if his swing was even a little late, he would completely miss the timing to hit the ball.

Hitting Huangqian Yangyi's pitches was absolutely not about seeing the ball's path before hitting; choosing the pitch, one must choose the pitch! Once chosen, hit it!

And this time, what Carlos chose was exactly an outside pitch.

The bat swept through with a strong gust of wind, Bang!

The little white ball slammed into the ground, bouncing exactly toward the position of First Base.

Yuki Tetsuya quickly shifted two steps to catch the ball, and Carlos failed to get on base.

"Ho, it was chosen, but to be tracked on the very first pitch, it seems Carlos has also put in quite a lot of hard work."

The ball being tracked didn't surprise Huangqian Yangyi; if one were to talk about the team most likely to threaten Seido in West Tokyo right now, it was only Inashiro Industrial.

Both sides regarded the other as their greatest rival, and no amount of research or targeting against each other was too much.

Moreover, he hadn't used his full strength on this pitch; one could tell just by the pitch speed being 148.

Carlos, having failed to reach base, looked back at Huangqian Yangyi as he left the field, seemingly dissatisfied that the ball had happened to land right next to Yuki Tetsuya; well, just a bit of bad luck, Carlos thought to himself.

Having secured one out, Huangqian Yangyi welcomed Inashiro's second batter, their Shortstop, the red-haired Shirakawa Katsuyuki.

Come on, an outside Cutter Slider, Miyuki smiled and gave the signal.

Shirakawa Katsuyuki's characteristics were being calm, good at pitch selection, and skilled at bunting.

Using a Cutter Slider with a tricky change in trajectory to deal with him was most appropriate; even if he wanted to bunt, it wouldn't be that easy.

Whoosh!

Huangqian Yangyi pitched; this ball's speed was actually faster than the previous Fastball, and Shirakawa Katsuyuki's move was indeed anticipated by Miyuki; the bat was set, and one look showed he had long since made up his mind to bunt.

However, just as the baseball was about to enter Home Plate, it suddenly shifted and dropped toward the outside; Shirakawa Katsuyuki's bat barely touched the top of the baseball, and the ball dropped in front of Miyuki, rolling less than two meters.

Shirakawa Katsuyuki had no time to reach base, and Miyuki's throw had already been caught by Yuki Tetsuya; Shirakawa Katsuyuki was out.

Two outs, no one on base, Inashiro's third batter Yoshizawa Hideaki came up.

One inside Two-seam Fastball, one outside Four-seam Fastball, one Forkball below the strike zone; after three consecutive pitches, Yoshizawa Hideaki was struck out.

Three up, three down; Huangqian Yangyi cleanly and efficiently ended the top of the inning, not giving Inashiro any chance to launch an attack.

"This guy is still as hard to deal with as ever." After returning to the Dugout, Yoshizawa Hideaki took off his glove and said helplessly.

When dealing with Carlos and Shirakawa Katsuyuki, Huangqian Yangyi hadn't chosen to explode with pitch speed, but instead pitched primarily based on Miyuki's pitch calling; by the time it reached his turn as the third batter, the opponent started cranking up the speed, and those last three pitches had reached a top speed of 155 kilometers per hour.

"We knew this long ago; for this, we also did enough training, didn't we? Show some confidence, there's nothing to worry about." Harada Masatoshi turned and said to his teammate.

"Captain, you're quite spirited." Carlos laughed.

Harada Masatoshi glanced at him, nodded, and said, "Let's go, it's our turn."

The 9 players of Inashiro entered the field; next it was their turn to defend, and Seido's batting lineup wouldn't allow them the slightest bit of slack.

Lead-off, Kuramochi Yoichi stepped into the Batter's Box; facing Narumiya Mei's pitching, Kuramochi was also hard to handle; after a year of growth, especially under the stimulation of constantly losing to Seido, Narumiya Mei's progress was visible to the naked eye.

Just the pitch speed had increased by 148 kilometers; if Huangqian Yangyi remembered correctly, in the original story, Narumiya Mei's pitch speed only increased to this level in his third year.

Not only that, after successively retiring Kuramochi and Kominato Ryosuke, Narumiya Mei showed astonishing control when facing the third batter Isashiki Jun, throwing three consecutive pitches to the very corners of the strike zone, giving Isashiki Jun a headache, and ultimately he was regrettably forced out.

The first inning ended, with the score 0:0.

From the look of the field, neither side had gained the upper hand; in the top of the second inning, Huangqian Yangyi immediately faced Inashiro's 4th batter, Captain Harada Masatoshi.

This person's batting was also second to none within the scope of national high schools, and he was no worse than Seido's 4th batter and Captain, Yuki Tetsuya.