Chapter 318: Master of Fulfilling Dreams

Seido High School's powerful performance in their first match made all the major powerhouses wary; that same evening, every team with championship aspirations began conducting deeper research into Seido.

One day later, the second round of matches.

Seido High School's match was the last one today, and they had been watching the games on television in the hotel until the afternoon, when the Seido team finally took a bus to the stadium.

Today's opponent was the representative from Osaka Prefecture (Kansai), Xingnan High School, a private school that focuses on speed, with the slogan "Speed is Justice."

Their Koshien record is decent; in recent years, they have reached the Top 8 in the Summer Koshien and the Top 4 in the Spring Koshien, which qualifies them as a powerhouse, but there are gaps even between powerhouses.

Once the game began, Xingnan High School deeply realized this point.

For Seido, today's starting Pitcher was Furuya Satoru, with Tanba Koichiro as the middle reliever, and Sawamura responsible for closing.

This lineup was extremely similar to the one against Naruto High School, with one senior paired with two First Years, and the arrangement of Sawamura and Furuya starting one after the other was also a deliberate move by the Coach to test their abilities.

Besides that, Arima Kazusa and Kominato Ryosuke did not get the start today, though the Catcher was changed to Miyuki.

After the game started, in the first inning, Seido was on offense first.

After Kuramochi Yoichi stepped up, he did not rush to swing; after observing two pitches, he chose to bunt, but ultimately failed to reach base. Xingnan High School's movements were very swift, and although they forced out Kuramochi, the process was very tense, and he was just a hair away from successfully reaching base.

"These guys from Xingnan High School seem to have a real knack for handling bunts."

In the dugout, Huangqian Yangyi watched everything happening in front of him in a leisurely manner.

The Xingnan High School team excels at stolen bases; not only in tactics, but all their players have fast foot speed. Although it doesn't reach the level of Kuramochi's speed, it is enough to cause trouble for the vast majority of teams.

With such characteristics, Xingnan High School itself is also very knowledgeable about how to deal with this type of player.

Thus, Kuramochi's first bunt attempt of the day ended in failure.

It was just that before the people from Xingnan High School could be happy for long, Kominato Ryosuke, who came up as the second batter, let them know what pain felt like, especially the pitcher.

11 pitches!!!

A full 11 pitches!

They couldn't believe how someone could possess such superb foul ball technique.

Every time the baseball flew foul, it was a torture for the pitcher.

"Damn it!!"

After tangling with Kominato Ryosuke for 11 pitches, the Xingnan High School ace still gave up an Infield Hit, which made him feel like going crazy inside. Having wasted so much stamina, he thought it would have been more cost-effective to just give him a Base on Balls.

After this, the third batter Isashiki also achieved a hit.

With one out and runners on first and second, Yuki Tetsuya stepped up and hit an Extra-base Hit to left field, immediately creating a bases-loaded situation.

Then Huangqian Yangyi also blasted an Extra-base Hit, directly sending Kominato Ryosuke from third base and Isashiki from second base home to score two runs.

Yuki Tetsuya reached third base, while Huangqian Yangyi stood on second base.

With one out and runners on second and third, in this situation, Miyuki stepped into the Batter's Box; a Single to the left sent Yuki Tetsuya home, but Huangqian Yangyi was tagged out.

"Tsk, shouldn't have run." Huangqian Yangyi muttered to himself as he left the field. The landing spot of that ball was decent enough for Yuki Tetsuya to return to third base; the opponent saw they couldn't stop Yuki from returning home, so they threw the ball directly to the Third Baseman to tag him out.

Two outs, runner on first.

Masuko Toru, who didn't get to play in the previous inning, relied on his powerful strength to blast a Home Run at this moment, scoring another two runs for Seido.

Afterward, Shirasu was forced out, and the Ninth Batter Furuya Satoru blasted the ball to the outfield, where it was caught for a Flyout.

In the first inning, Seido successfully scored 5 runs.

In the bottom of the first inning, Furuya Satoru started on the Pitcher's Mound.

Over three innings, he only gave up one run in the first inning.

The game went all the way to the top of the ninth inning, at which point the score was already 24:3.

Furuya gave up one run, Tanba gave up one run, and Sawamura also gave up one run.

Top of the ninth, two outs, runner on third.

Huangqian Yangyi blasted his third Home Run of the game at this moment!

This was his 7th of this Koshien, and the 50th Home Run of his entire high school career.

Over two games, Huangqian Yangyi had directly racked up 7 Home Runs; Coach Kataoka sat in the dugout with a grin from ear to ear. With Huangqian Yangyi being this ferocious, it was worth letting him play to pad his stats.

In Coach Kataoka's heart, he actually didn't hope for Huangqian Yangyi to enter professional baseball as a pitcher after he graduated in his third year.

A maximum pitch speed exceeding 160 km/h would only crazily consume Huangqian Yangyi's professional lifespan.

Especially in professional baseball, the coaches there won't cherish your shoulder; in a professional league held hostage by capital, pitchers are just consumables.

And a batter's professional lifespan is much longer than a pitcher's. Being able to rack up a beautiful Home Run record during high school means Huangqian Yangyi can have more and better choices in the future.

This was also one of the reasons why he had been deliberately reducing the number of times Huangqian Yangyi stood on the Pitcher's Mound during this time.

Soon, the game ended, with a final score of 26:3.

Such a result was not surprising; after all, this is the "Universe Team" Seido High School!

"Haha, after today's game, we have already entered the Top 16. Next is the match to advance from 16 to 8; this game is very critical."

After returning to the hotel, at the post-game review meeting that night, Coach Kataoka directly announced the starting lineup for the next game.

"First batter! Shortstop, Kominato Ryosuke!"

Huh??

Everyone looked at Coach Kataoka in surprise.

Kominato Ryosuke himself was also shocked; what's the situation? What is this for?

Huangqian Yangyi immediately turned his head to look at Kuramochi Yoichi; this guy had a smile on his face, as if he had known all along.

Hiss!

There's something wrong!

Before Huangqian Yangyi could ask, Coach Kataoka in front continued.

"Second batter! Second Baseman, Kominato Haruichi!"

Got it!!

Huangqian Yangyi understood.

Who would have thought, the thick-browed and big-eyed Coach Kataoka would have such a delicate mind.

Taking advantage of the fact that this round's opponent is not strong, he gave the Kominato brothers a chance to fulfill their dream.

To stand on the Koshien field together!

It looks like this was even discussed with a certain Shortstop in advance; otherwise, that kid would definitely be blowing his top right now.

I have to say, this arrangement is very heartwarming, and Kominato Ryosuke is also very familiar with the Shortstop position, so filling in for one game is not a difficult task, while Kominato Haruichi takes over his brother's position as Second Baseman.

Tsk tsk, Coach Kataoka, you really are a master of fulfilling dreams.