Chapter 283: Knuckleball

If, if I could enter Seido, would I be able to be his substitute?

Maki Yosuke had such a thought; in his heart, he was willing to enter Seido even if it were just to be a substitute.

The brief moment of distraction was interrupted by the shouts of his teammates, and Maki Yosuke's palms trembled slightly, not knowing if it was from excitement or fear, as this was, after all, the opponent who had just hit a Golden Home Run off him.

With a trace of awe, Maki Yosuke threw the first pitch; the ball's trajectory was tricky, and its final landing spot was also tightly hugging the edge of the strike zone.

Not bad, Huangqian Yangyi glanced at Maki Yosuke with appreciation; this person's mentality was actually quite good, having given up ten runs and been hit for a 4-run home run, yet still able to produce such a pitching performance when facing him again—he was indeed a talent.

However, this is not a reason for you to be hostile toward Seido, Huangqian Yangyi's lips curled into a smile.

Maki Yosuke suddenly felt a cold breeze blow by, feeling as if something bad was about to happen.

More than ten seconds later, when the second pitch he threw was blasted by Huangqian Yangyi into the stands with a heavy cannon-like swing, Maki Yosuke understood.

A repeat performance!

Huangqian Yangyi had achieved his second home run of this game!

The score was 12:0.

The Seido supporters on the sidelines all stood up and shouted loudly, cheering for Huangqian Yangyi's name.

Raising his arms high, Huangqian Yangyi's face was filled with smiles as he ran a lap and immediately high-fived Yuki Tetsuya upon returning to home plate.

Looking back at the pitcher's mound, Maki Yosuke's eyes had lost their color.

After this, Miyuki beat the dog while it was down, obtaining a double.

Arima Kazusa followed up to advance the runners, two outs, runners on first and third.

Shirasu did not let the fans down either, successfully getting a hit to send Miyuki back to home plate.

Until Sawamura came up to bat, his bunt was fielded for an out.

The third inning ended here, with the score at 13:0.

After this half-inning, Maki Yosuke had completely lost his spirit; even the newly substituted pitcher was of no help, and instead, it allowed Huangqian Yangyi's home run count to increase by one more.

And although Sawamura was slightly careless in the fourth inning and gave up two runs, by the fifth inning, Sawamura immediately regained his form, retiring the Sensen High School side in order.

In the end, the game ended early with a large score gap of 19:1, which was also the largest score gap in the history of the Summer Tournament semi-finals.

With Huangqian Yangyi not starting, the audience had originally thought that Sensen High School, this veteran powerhouse of West Tokyo, would be able to take runs from Seido.

As it turned out, Seido only sent out a First Year, yet it left Sensen High School's batting lineup with no way to get started.

Or rather, the gap in overall defensive strength made the people of Sensen High School even more desperate; so what if they hit the ball out? Had they not hit Sawamura's pitches out many times? But most of the time, they were unable to complete a base hit.

Even when they occasionally got on base, they couldn't connect their offense and couldn't send people back to home plate to score.

It was too difficult; the manager and players of Sensen High School deeply felt the gap between the two teams at this moment.

Such a Seido, what kind of team could possibly overcome them?

Standing in the dugout, Maki Yosuke stared blankly at the Seido players opposite, listening to the unwilling sighs and sobs of his teammates beside him; for some reason, at this moment, the resentment in his heart toward Seido suddenly vanished completely.

"Next time, I will definitely defeat you!"

As the ace of Sensen High School!

On the Seido side, the joy of once again breaking into the finals infected everyone.

"The finals! We're coming!" Isashiki Jun shouted at the top of his lungs, looking up.

"Ohhh~!!!!" All the players rushed onto the field to cheer.

In the stands, the people from Inashiro Industrial remained silent, calmly watching the celebrating Seido below.

"They've become even more formidable, their batting lineup."

"Yeah, besides Jiecheng and Huangqian, the others have also clearly improved by a grade."

"So what? It won't be that easy to score off me; no! They won't be able to get a single point!"

Narumiya Mei stood up and said coldly, "This year's Summer Koshien ticket must belong to us, Inashiro!"

"That's right! Defeat Huangqian Yangyi!"

"Crush him!"

"Must tear him apart!"

The Inashiro players stared one by one at Huangqian Yangyi on the field, their resentment quite heavy.

"Let's go, it's our turn!" Harada Masatoshi said as he led the team away from the spectator stands.

After celebrating, the Seido group happily returned to the locker room.

"Everyone change your clothes, take your things to the stands to eat lunch; there is an Inashiro game later, everyone must be present," Manager Kataoka said.

"Yes!!"

Carrying their backpacks out of the locker room, several managers walked over, each carrying two large boxes containing the bento boxes ordered before the game.

"Yangyi, this is yours," Fujiwara Takako handed a cute cream-colored lunch box into Huangqian Yangyi's hands.

"It's made by you again, Senior, thank you for your hard work," Huangqian Yangyi took it and smiled very gratefully at Fujiwara Takako.

"It's no trouble at all," Fujiwara Takako smiled.

The group arrived at the spectator stands, Miyuki sat to Huangqian Yangyi's left, and Fujiwara Takako sat to Huangqian Yangyi's right, holding a water cup.

"Well, Inashiro versus Sakurazawa, want to guess the score?" Kuramochi suddenly said from behind.

"Not interesting."

"Not interested."

Huangqian Yangyi and Miyuki simultaneously gave a negative response.

"Eh, where did Sawamura go?" someone suddenly asked.

"He went to meet his little friends, he should be coming back soon, right?"

"Kuramochi, go! Drag him back!"

"Yaha, this idiot, he completely forgot the manager's words," Kuramochi stood up to go outside and look for Sawamura, while the others focused on watching the game.

Inashiro's opponent, Sakurazawa High School, is an out-and-out weak team; looking back twenty years, they were eliminated in the first round every single year.

Yet this year, they charged all the way into the final four, becoming Inashiro's opponent in the semi-finals.

All of this is credited to their ace Pitcher, Changxu Ming.

The overall strength of Sakurazawa High School is not strong, but Changxu Ming, relying on a Butterfly Ball that stunned everyone, forcibly carried the team to this point, the stage of the semi-finals.

As soon as the game began, Changxu Ming's Butterfly Ball started to show its power, making it very difficult for the Inashiro players to find the hitting point.

For this kind of pitching, where even the Catcher and the Pitcher himself do not know where the ball will land, there is no such thing as prediction; most of the time, one can only rely on luck.

Frustrating! Too frustrating!

The Inashiro players were all holding back a fire they couldn't vent.

In the first two innings of the game, looking at the situation, both sides were evenly matched, but those familiar with Narumiya Mei knew that this Left-handed Emperor of West Tokyo was about to start showing his power.

Starting from the third inning, Narumiya Mei's pitching was extremely aggressive, making every Batter from Sakurazawa feel immense pressure, and even their Pitcher was affected, with errors beginning to appear in his pitching.

In the third inning, Inashiro scored 3 runs.

In the fourth inning, Inashiro scored 5 runs.

In the fifth inning, Inashiro scored 6 runs.

With a score of 14:0, Inashiro ended the game early in 5 innings.

Whew~

The game ended, and Narumiya Mei stood on the Pitcher's Mound, turning to look at the location in the stands where Seido was.

How about that? You ended the game early in 5 innings, and we also ended it early in 5 innings; who's afraid of whom?