The score was 4:4, and Seido High School Baseball Team was on offense. Two outs, runner on first base.
In the batter's box, Isashiki Jun, with his little beard, looked ferocious. Zhang Han's two-run home run had elevated Seido's momentum to its peak.
Originally, they had been suppressed by Inashiro throughout the game with little chance. Then, without warning, Zhang Han's home run not only tied the score but disrupted Narumiya Mei's rhythm. An opportunity had appeared out of nowhere.
They hadn't lost this game yet. They still had a chance to win.
As a core hitter, Isashiki Jun absolutely could not let the offense stop with him. He had to keep it going.
He used every ounce of strength he had left. He stared intently at the incoming baseball, seized the moment, and swung.
"Ping!"
The moment the white ball was struck, the atmosphere in the stadium reached a climax. Isashiki Jun had hit it out too. Could Seido really make a comeback?
Just as the crowd was wondering, a nimble figure sprinted to the ball's landing spot. Seeing the baseball about to come down, the figure leaped and caught it in his glove.
"Snap!"
"Out!"
A highly threatening ball, neutralized by Carlos.
The players of Seido High School Baseball Team looked at each other in dismay. For a moment, they had forgotten that their opponent wasn't just Narumiya Mei. It was the entire Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team. Inashiro didn't only have an incredibly strong pitcher. They also had a defense like an iron wall.
Three outs, change of sides.
The game entered the sixth inning.
At this point, the Inashiro Industrial players were clearly rattled. Zhang Han's tying home run had made them feel the threat of defeat. They understood that if they didn't push themselves now, there was a very real chance they would lose. And that was something Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team absolutely could not accept.
When Inashiro went on offense in the top of the sixth, their fighting spirit was visibly different. The players' eyes were red, as if they were ready to fight to the death.
"The real test begins now!"
Miyuki, of course, sensed the shift in the opponent's momentum. Inashiro, with soaring morale, would surely launch a fierce offense. The direction of the game from here on would largely depend on the outcome of this inning.
Such a desperate offensive stance couldn't be maintained for long. A frantic offense was a double-edged sword: while it boosted offensive morale, it also exposed more problems. Once those problems were exploited, Seido could get outs more easily.
In the later stages of the game, unless the gap between the two sides was too large, such an all-out attacking style would be difficult to sustain. There was one more inning before the game entered its later stages. This was their only chance to attack without restraint.
Miyuki was bold. He aggressively guided Kawakami's pitching, forcing Harada, Inashiro Industrial's cleanup hitter, to hit an infield grounder. Kominato Ryosuke fielded it cleanly and threw to Yuuki at first base.
"Snap!"
"Out!"
One out, no runners on base.
Seido got off to a good start in the inning, and their morale soared. It seemed as if fate was smiling on them. Perhaps Seido High School Baseball Team could truly win today's game.
It wasn't just Seido's own players who thought so. Many fans in the stands shared the same idea. Although Inashiro Industrial's overall performance had been better, the most exciting thing about baseball was its unpredictability. The stronger team didn't always win.
Just like now: Inashiro had clearly performed better than Seido, yet the score was still tied 4:4.
At this moment, no one expected that in just a few minutes, the situation on the field would undergo a drastic reversal.
One out, no runners on base. It was Narumiya Mei's turn to hit.
Narumiya Mei, full of suppressed anger, put everything into his swing, as if using it to vent his fury. Miyuki and Kawakami had intended to fool him with a breaking ball, but they never expected it.
"Ping!"
The bat made perfect contact. The ball flew far.
Narumiya Mei was on base.
Immediately after, the sixth batter, Yamaoka Riku, swung hard, unwilling to be outdone. The baseball flew over Yuuki's head. Yuuki jumped desperately, trying to reach it, but his glove was at least thirty to forty centimeters short. He could only watch helplessly as the ball landed behind him.
Yamaoka Riku advanced to first base. Narumiya Mei, who had been on first, ran past second and all the way to third.
One out, runners on first and third.
Seido High School Baseball Team seemed to have used up all their luck at once. Kawakami's pitches were being hit one after another.
Ota, in the dugout, was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.
"Is he already tired?"
He couldn't tell for certain, but the continuous hits suggested Kawakami's pitching wasn't as sharp as it had been at the start.
Kataoka shook his head.
"It's not that Kawakami is tired. It's that Inashiro's players have adapted to his pitching."
Terrifying. They had already adapted to Kawakami in their second encounter.
But Director Kataoka didn't seem particularly surprised. For Kawakami to have held on until now was already very difficult in his eyes. Their biggest gap with Inashiro was in their pitcher, and that kind of gap was nearly impossible to bridge. Kawakami lasting this long before faltering was already remarkable.
"Ball!"
"Ball!"
"Ball!"
"Ball!"
"Walk!"
Hirai, the seventh batter, was walked by Kawakami. Seido employed a bases-loaded strategy, giving Hirai first base intentionally to set up force plays at every base.
One out, bases loaded.
This way, they could focus on dealing with the eighth and ninth batters.
Soyogi Katsumi, the eighth batter, had great power, ranking among the top few in all of Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team. But his swing wasn't flexible enough, which was why he batted eighth. He was not someone to underestimate.
Kawakami's pitching style happened to match up well against him. Against a pure power hitter, tricky breaking balls were the right approach.
For the first pitch, Miyuki signaled for a sinker. Using their trump card from the start to gain the upper hand.
The white ball whistled in. As it approached the strike zone, it suddenly dropped sharply toward Soyogi Katsumi's calf.
Miyuki's eyes went wide.
The pitch was wrong. It had completely missed the strike zone.
"Thud…"
The baseball struck Soyogi Katsumi's calf. He immediately dropped his bat and fell to the ground.
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