Tanba assumed his pitching stance.
As he pitched, Carlos, at Second Base, immediately broke into a run.
When the catcher, Miyuki, saw this, it was already too late to warn Tanba. He could only make a silent resolution to catch the ball himself. After catching it, he would throw directly to Third Base.
Carlos was too confident. Did he really think his speed was invincible?
Miyuki calculated in his mind that with his pickoff speed, preventing Carlos from stealing Second Base might be somewhat difficult, but stopping him from reaching Third Base was absolutely within his capabilities.
He was confident he could do it. He also believed that Masuko would be able to tag out this audacious fellow at Third Base.
Miyuki had already written the script in his mind. But what he didn't expect was another man standing between them.
Seeing the white ball flying toward him, Shirakawa unhesitatingly positioned his bat and bunted the ball directly in front of the pitcher.
A strong sense of crisis rose suddenly in Miyuki's heart. He had a premonition that this might be a trap. But who exactly was this trap targeting? What was its purpose? In such a short time, he couldn't figure it out.
Then he saw Tanba rush forward and pick up the ball.
Tanba looked back at Carlos, decided there was no chance, and turned to throw the ball directly to Yuuki at First Base.
As things developed, Miyuki immediately understood what the Inashiro Industrial players were trying to do.
"Home Base!"
He could only call out to Yuuki at First Base in advance. But by the time he called out, time was already very tight.
Carlos, who had started running from Second Base, had fully accelerated. It would only take him about three seconds to sprint from Third Base to Home Base.
This was different from a runner stealing directly from Third Base. A direct steal requires a starting time. But Carlos had already accelerated, so he needed none.
Carlos covered this distance at nearly his fastest 100-meter sprint speed.
About three seconds. Perhaps even less.
A distance of twenty-seven meters posed little obstacle to a running African Leopard.
And what about Seido? From Tanba's throw to First Base, to Yuuki Tetsuya's catch, then the throw to Home Base, the ball's flight time alone would take over a second, plus the preparation movements of two people.
That would also be nearly three seconds. Even with no errors in between, the reaction time left for Miyuki would be almost negligible.
Is it too late?
Just as Miyuki felt despair, he noticed that Yuuki at First Base had minimized his catching motion.
"Smack!"
The moment the baseball entered his glove, Yuuki had already turned his body ninety degrees. He didn't even have time to hear the First Base Referee declare Shirakawa out.
Yuuki threw the baseball in his hand. By minimizing his movements, he had saved a few tenths of a second without affecting the throw's speed.
The baseball flew directly into Miyuki's glove, perfectly accurate.
"Smack!"
This was too cool.
Even now, with every second counting and the situation incredibly tense, Miyuki couldn't help but want to praise Yuuki. Ever since he became captain, this senior of theirs seemed to have activated a cheat code, simply unstoppable.
Miyuki received the ball with Carlos still a full four meters from Home Base.
Everyone who saw this couldn't help but want to cheer, even the opponents. They had never seen such teamwork before. It was incredibly cool.
While others were amazed, Carlos, as the person involved, felt extreme despair.
Did these guys from Seido drink some kind of energy drink? How could their return throw be so fast?
His current collaboration with Shirakawa had been practiced many times during Inashiro's private training sessions, timed precisely down to milliseconds. According to their calculations, if there was any flaw in their offensive strategy, it would undoubtedly fail. But as long as their coordination had no problems, the probability of Carlos safely reaching base was basically over ninety-five percent.
Their reference opponents were Narumiya Mei, Inashiro's Ace, and Yamaoka Riku, the First Baseman. The coordination between those two definitely represented the top level in the nation.
Their coordination today, while not 100% complete, was at least over 90%. Scoring at Home Base should have been a matter of course.
But Seido had still shaved off a few tenths of a second? So much so that when he approached Home Base, that annoying Miyuki had already made full preparations. He couldn't block Home Base outright, but he could obstruct Carlos's path.
What should he do? Just watch himself get double-played?
Carlos refused to give up. Inashiro had already lost to Seido once before. They were here for revenge, not to let that tragedy repeat.
For the remaining four meters, Carlos suddenly changed direction, appearing to go around Miyuki's outside to reach Home Base. He seemed to have thrown caution to the wind, determined to score no matter what.
But the more eager the opponent was, the less Miyuki wanted to give up this run.
They were trailing Inashiro by one run. An additional run wasn't unacceptable on its own, but in such a closely matched contest, momentum mattered as much as the score. If Carlos succeeded, it would deal a heavy blow to Seido's morale.
Miyuki could not accept that. And putting momentum aside, in a game this tight, every run was crucial. He could not accept giving one up, either.
He wouldn't just watch Carlos escape. Miyuki stood up and moved to Carlos's opposite side. There was no need for a collision. As long as his glove could touch Carlos's body, he would get the out.
Just as Miyuki was about to succeed, Carlos, breaking wide to the outside, suddenly made a turn of over eighty degrees. His body, with an incredible range of motion, spun instantly to the other side. He had been going wide, and now he dove forward, appearing as if he was throwing himself directly into Miyuki's arms.
Throwing himself into his arms?
No matter how experienced Miyuki was, he had never seen anything like this. What exactly did Carlos want to do?
For a moment, Miyuki Kazuya was stunned.
Three existential questions popped into his mind.
Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I doing?
Just as Miyuki was momentarily distracted, Carlos, like a black javelin, shot past one side of his body.
Miyuki snapped awake. He immediately remembered who he was. Where he was. What he was doing.
He was Miyuki Kazuya, the catcher for Seido, currently in a 1-on-1 battle with Carlos, the base stealer from Inashiro.
Miyuki quickly pulled back his gloved hand and pressed it down toward Carlos's body.
"Thud!"
Carlos dove onto Home Base, and Miyuki fell with him, his glove pressing down on Carlos's body.
In such an intense confrontation, Miyuki kept a tight grip on his glove, clutching the ball tightly inside.
From their individual perspectives, neither of them could see whether the glove touched the person first or the person touched Home Base first. Neither of them spoke. Both looked toward the Home Base Referee.
The fans in the stands held their breath. They stared intently at Home Base, all guessing who would come out the victor.
Tens of thousands of eyes were fixed on the Referee.
He was a middle-aged man in his forties, and even he was stunned. His reaction wasn't slow. He had been watching the two of them closely the entire time. But Miyuki's glove touching Carlos and Carlos's hand touching Home Base had happened almost simultaneously. He could not distinguish which came first with the naked eye.
After two or three seconds, the Referee gritted his teeth and raised his hand.
"Safe!"
The run counted. Inashiro scored their third run of the game. The total score became three to one, with Seido once again trailing by two.
Miyuki stood up, unwilling to accept the outcome. He hadn't been able to tell, in the moment, whether he was faster or if Carlos touched Home Base first. But in his heart, he still felt unconvinced.
This dark-skinned kid had too much luck.
Miyuki, as the person involved, didn't have any other negative thoughts. But Tanba, who had witnessed every detail of the confrontation, felt a huge tremor in his heart.
What exactly had he just seen?
At Home Base, with the path already blocked, Carlos had used a basketball-like change-of-direction technique to forcefully shift Miyuki's center of gravity. And this wasn't dribbling in place; Carlos had done it while moving at high speed.
Could this guy still be considered an ordinary human? His body coordination was simply too good.