Chapter 238: Mishimen High School

Time flew to July, and the Summer Tournament officially began; as a seeded team, Seido would join the competition starting in the third round.

For a week of continuous training, the First String focused mainly on maintaining their condition; the day before the third-round match began, the 20 members of the First String gathered in the meeting room.

Manager Kataoka and Ochiai Hiromitsu analyzed the intelligence on their opponent for this match, Mishimen High School, for everyone.

(In the original work, the second round of the Summer Tournament was Mishimen, and the third round was Tomurata Higashi; here, Mishimen is moved directly to the third round, and Tomurata Higashi is ignored...)

In less than half an hour, the meeting neared its end, and Manager Kataoka announced the starting lineup for tomorrow's game.

"First batter, Shortstop, Kuramochi Yoichi."

"Second batter, Second Baseman, Kominato Ryosuke."

"Third batter, Center Fielder, Isashiki Jun."

"Fourth batter, First Baseman, Yuki Tetsuya."

"Fifth batter, Left Fielder, Huangqian Yangyi."

"Sixth batter, Catcher, Miyuki Kazuya."

"Seventh batter, Third Baseman, Masuko Toru."

"Eighth batter, Right Fielder, Shirasu Kenjiro."

"Ninth batter, Pitcher, Furuya Satoru."

After hearing the starting lineup, Huangqian Yangyi kicked the stool of Furuya Satoru, who was sitting in front of him, "Do your best, kid, don't get blown out by them."

"I will never let them hit my pitches!" Furuya Satoru said, looking back.

"Well~ having confidence is a good thing, don't put too much pressure on yourself, remember, baseball is not a one-man sport."

After saying this, Huangqian Yangyi yawned and stretched; although he couldn't take the mound to pitch in the upcoming games, it wasn't bad to be able to bat.

The manager's considerations in this regard were quite reasonable; not only could it conserve his stamina, but it also took into account that his pitch speed was too fast and too many pitches could easily damage his shoulder, but batting was different—the number of times he would bat in a single game wouldn't be high, and at the same time, it gave him the opportunity to rack up home runs.

Especially when facing a weak team like Mishimen High School, the chance of hitting a home run was relatively high; Manager Kataoka only let Huangqian Yangyi play as a left fielder because of this, otherwise, he would have preferred to wait until after the quarterfinals to field Huangqian Yangyi.

"Sawamura!"

After announcing the starting lineup, Manager Kataoka turned his head to look at Sawamura Eijun; he saw that this guy, who had just been looking resentful because he couldn't start, immediately turned into a sycophant the moment he heard the manager call his name, and stood up with a 'whoosh'.

"General! Please, just give the order; even if you want me to replace Furuya as the starter, it's absolutely no problem."

Manager Kataoka had black lines on his forehead; 'General' or whatever, it didn't sound any better than Huangqian Yangyi's 'BOSS'.

"Be prepared, you will also play tomorrow," Manager Kataoka said.

Sawamura shuddered upon hearing this and shouted, "Yes boss, I guarantee I will complete the mission, General!"

*Heh*, Manager Kataoka turned his head; although Sawamura's attitude was good, it was still a bit embarrassing to hear such titles in front of so many people.

The next day.

In the West Tokyo region, at Hachioji City Stadium, the second game of the third round of the Summer Preliminary Tournament, the match between Seido High School and Mishimen High School, officially began.

Before taking the field, Huangqian Yangyi put on his batting gloves and walked up to Furuya Satoru and Sawamura.

"If you two can't end the game in 5 innings today, you'll be running 10 extra laps after we get back!"

"Huh?"

"Eh?"

Furuya and Sawamura turned their heads in astonishment; no way, why was there a punishment?

Although they were puzzled in their hearts, neither of them dared to say a single word of protest.

"Tsk tsk, the pressure is starting."

"Your heart is really black, Huangqian."

"Bullying the little underclassmen."

"I think this is quite good, the manager didn't say anything either."

"Aren't you afraid it will affect their pitching state?"

"What's there to fear? Aren't Tanba and Kawakami still waiting in the wings?"

"Exactly, our ace is still here and hasn't moved yet."

The teammates discussed among themselves after hearing Huangqian Yangyi's conversation with the two.

"Hmm, Huangqian is right; if it goes over 5 innings, you two better prepare for extra training," Manager Kataoka also spoke up at this moment.

The pressure on Furuya and Sawamura grew even greater.

*Hoo~*

Furuya took a deep breath; today, no matter what, he would suppress the opponent's batting lineup!

Top of the first inning, Seido was on offense first.

The starting pitcher for Mishimen High School was not their ace left-hander; this point left everyone on Seido very confused.

Jersey number 10, Pitcher, Nanpei Mamoru, third year, submarine pitcher—this was the starting pitcher for Mishimen High School in this match.

Kuramochi Yoichi, who was the first to step into the batter's box, did not rush to swing because there was absolutely no detailed information on this pitcher in their database.

"The duty of the first batter is to do everything possible to get on base, but now that there is no intelligence on the pitcher, I absolutely cannot swing the bat carelessly." Kuramochi looked at Nanpei Mamoru on the pitcher's mound, feeling a bit uneasy in his heart.

*Whoosh! *

After the first pitch flew in, Kuramochi Yoichi observed it carefully and had black lines on his face; this pitch was so slow, not even 120 kilometers!

However, the trajectory was terrifyingly low; the release point was even lower than the side-arm pitcher Kawakami, a trajectory that floated up first and then dropped.

Kuramochi looked at Nanpei Mamoru again; although it was a bit surprising that the pitch was so slow, it was understandable for a submarine pitcher. Because of the different way of exerting force, the pitch speed of a submarine pitcher seemed relatively slow, but precisely because of this, the control of a submarine pitcher or a side-arm pitcher was relatively better, and the pitch trajectory was lower and trickier; it was not an easy thing for a batter to hit well.

*Swish! *

Without waiting to think more, Nanpei Mamoru threw the second pitch; this time, Kuramochi Yoichi did not hesitate, aimed at the trajectory, and swung his bat.

*Bang! *

The baseball flew toward first base.

"Jianjie!"

"Strike!"

Tch!

Kuramochi let out a cold snort; he hadn't hit that ball well. The spot the opponent aimed for was too tricky, and to be honest, he wasn't very used to this pitch speed.

During daily training, what kind of pitch speeds did they almost always see? Speeds over 150 were everywhere, so this sudden slow one really made it hard for him to adapt to his batting rhythm.

On the sidelines, in the Mishimen High School dugout, their manager Chiba Junichi was a middle-aged man with a very bold appearance and personality.

Seeing Kuramochi suppressed by their Pitcher's throw, a smug smile appeared on his face unconsciously.

"Hehehe, without any information on the pitcher, even Seido's batting lineup will be flying blind."

"The first article of the Chiba Style Winning Iron Rule: no matter what method you use, you must strike first!"

In his view, a powerhouse team like Seido would definitely not take a weak team like them, Mishimen, seriously when meeting them in the first game.

One could tell this just from the starting lineup the opponent sent out, where the Pitcher was actually a First Year.

On the field, Nanpei Mamoru was already prepared to throw the third pitch.

Whoosh~

Kuramochi loosened his grip on the bat; although Nanpei Mamoru's pitching was a bit troublesome, it was only a little.

After the third pitch flew out, Kuramochi lowered his center of gravity and swung the bat in his hands forcefully toward the incoming little white ball.