Chapter 41: Useless Waste Pitch

"Are you sure this wasn't a wild pitch?"

"Absolutely not! A wild pitch is impossible, it will never happen in this lifetime! I suspect you are looking down on my control!" Huangqian Yangyi said with dissatisfaction.

Heh heh...

Control, he says; this ball flew all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Miyuki kept complaining internally. This was the first time he had failed to catch the ball twice in a row, but this was entirely Huangqian Yangyi's problem; it absolutely could not be blamed on him!

After some mental preparation, Miyuki still refused to believe it; he had never seen such an outrageous slider.

"Come on, throw it again."

Huangqian Yangyi naturally obliged him.

And then, it flew away again.

The third pitch, still flying.

Confirmed, this guy's slider, just like his cutter, has major problems; one has an exaggerated range of movement, and the other has almost no movement at all.

"How is it? Any way to fix it?" Huangqian Yangyi asked.

Miyuki frowned, his face full of difficulty, and after thinking for a long time, he said: "When throwing the slider, try not to use so much force with your fingers?"

"That doesn't work, I've tried it. Aside from the speed slowing down, it still drifts outward." Huangqian Yangyi made a bitter face. He had thought of many ways, and it was precisely because they didn't work that he wanted Miyuki to help take a look.

"This is tricky. This slider of yours, even if you jam it into the inside corner, it will still drift left outside the strike zone, and it starts changing halfway there, so you can't even trick the batter into swinging."

Miyuki lowered his head and thought, "It's basically a useless pitch."

"Huh? A useless pitch?" Huangqian Yangyi was unwilling to accept such an evaluation.

"Isn't it?" Miyuki looked up and said.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Huangqian Yangyi gestured exaggeratedly, "Have you ever seen a ball that drifts that far? This is a one-of-a-kind slider in the world!"

"What a tasteless guy!"

Watching the guy in front of him spraying saliva 10 meters away, Miyuki silently stood a bit to the side.

"I can't think of a way for now. Why not ask the manager? Or Chris-senpai?" Miyuki said.

Huangqian Yangyi looked at Miyuki with contempt: "No way? What use are you then."

Miyuki almost couldn't catch his breath. This jerk, even though he himself had no solution, still had the nerve to talk about him.

"Forget it, let's stop throwing cutters and sliders for now. Just practice honestly, and we can talk about the new pitch types after tomorrow's game." Miyuki didn't want to dwell on this issue anymore; the most important thing right now was to maintain his condition and win tomorrow's final.

"Fine, anyway, I was just itching to try new pitch types because I saw senpai doing it." Huangqian Yangyi shrugged indifferently. It was just a whim to begin with, and he wanted to see if Miyuki had any good suggestions, but it turned out Miyuki couldn't be relied on either.

After the two gave up on researching new pitch types, they began their daily pitching practice, throwing 20 pitches each of the four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, and changeup.

After the pitching practice ended, he accompanied Miyuki to take off his gear, and the two took their bats to the batting practice area. At this time, many people were already doing independent practice, most of whom were second and third-year senpai.

Swing practice, tee batting, pitching, catching, fielding, base running... Even without Manager Kataoka by their side, these senpai still consciously performed their corresponding training.

No wonder they say high school baseball is tough; having joined Seido for twenty days or so, Huangqian Yangyi had gained a deep understanding of it.

Scanning the area, Huangqian Yangyi discovered Kuramochi, Kawakami, and Ono Hiroshi in a group doing pitching and batting practice.

"Ya-ha-ha~"

Kuramochi stood in the left Batter's Box and hit Kawakami's slider with one swing. The ball flew out quickly and landed in the direction of the Left Fielder, where it was steadily caught by Asou Takeru, who was doing fielding practice.

"Flyout!" Asou shouted while holding the ball.

"Tch!" Kuramochi swung his bat in annoyance, switched to the right Batter's Box, and shouted at Kawakami: "Again!"

Kawakami smiled helplessly. Was his pitching really that easy to hit? Switching from left to right?

Just as he was preparing to continue pitching, Kawakami noticed Huangqian Yangyi and Miyuki Kazuya standing not far away out of the corner of his eye. When Kuramochi came to find him and Ono Hiroshi to practice earlier, he had said he couldn't find these two, looking like a resentful wife who had been abandoned.

"Ha! Why are you two here! Where did you run off to just now!" Kuramochi also discovered the two at this time, roaring with his bat pointed in their direction.

"Practicing, what's wrong?" Huangqian Yangyi walked up and said.

"Why didn't you call me? You two actually snuck off behind my back!"

"Hey hey, don't say it like that, it's a bit weird." Miyuki smiled helplessly.

Kuramochi remained relentless, grabbing Miyuki's collar and messing around. Huangqian Yangyi smiled at Kawakami and immediately asked: "Can I hit your pitches?"

"Eh? Me?" Kawakami didn't expect Huangqian Yangyi to take the initiative to talk to him.

After entering Seido, Huangqian Yangyi and Miyuki joined the First String within a few days. They usually had almost no opportunities to interact, and furthermore, Kawakami's own personality was relatively introverted. Up to now, the two were just nodding acquaintances who knew each other's names.

Huangqian Yangyi suddenly proposed to hit his pitches, and Kawakami was momentarily at a loss.

"What? Is it not allowed?" Huangqian Yangyi said with a hint of apology: "Did I interrupt your training?"

Seeing Kawakami's slider just now, Huangqian Yangyi suddenly thought of his own outrageous slider, which is why he had the idea to try hitting it. Perhaps he could find some inspiration from Kawakami's slider?

But looking at Kawakami's expression, he didn't seem very willing.

"No, no, Huangqian-san, it's fine." Hearing Huangqian Yangyi's words, Kawakami thought he was unhappy, and even used honorifics.

"It's fine? That's great." Huangqian Yangyi swung his bat twice and continued: "Kawakami, you can just call me Huangqian, or Yangyi is fine too."

Kawakami was stunned for a moment; he didn't expect Huangqian Yangyi to be so easygoing. "Okay, Huangqian-san."

Shaking his head helplessly, Huangqian Yangyi stood in the Batter's Box, turned his head, and smiled at Ono Hiroshi: "Sorry to trouble you, Ono-kun."

Ono Hiroshi opened his mask, smiled, and said seriously: "I won't let you hit it easily, Huangqian."

Feeling the fighting spirit in Ono Hiroshi's eyes, Huangqian Yangyi smiled helplessly. The other First Years had already completely treated him and Miyuki as rivals.

"Don't be so serious, I just want to see the slider. Can you throw more sliders?" Huangqian Yangyi wouldn't get hot-headed and start some competition; his goal was very clear, which was to see Kawakami's slider.

If possible, he also wanted to go find Nanjo Taishi later to learn from him. The other party's High-speed Slider was thrown very well. Although he hadn't used the slider in a game, he knew how to throw it. If he sought advice from more people, he might be able to develop a new pitch type of his own.