Peace Academy's second batter, Masaoka Masa, has failed to get out of the strike zone twice before. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Info was just out of the game now, and he looked at the dugout. Mr. Sato was scrolling through his phone, and captain Fukushima didn't say anything.

Since there were no special tactical signals, Masaoka decided to give it a go, after all, it was a practice race, and now there were runners on the lap, which was a great opportunity to extend the score. The tactics of striking and sacrificing what to hit are really redundant.

Pitcher mound. Yoichi Minami, the pitcher on Yono's new board, shook his head twice before throwing his first shot.

It appears to be a straight ball in the inside corner that has been missed. The ball was so high that the catcher Shirakawa stood up to catch it. However, the ball reached a speed of 127 kilometers, which is faster than the previous few balls.

The second ball was still a straight ball, aiming low for the outside corner. Masaoka has no intention of swinging the bat with a bat. And the referee's decision was a good shot.

This is a distinctly diagonal pattern of matching, a common tactic to interfere with a hitter's selection. It's just that the first ball, which is used to distract the player's vision, is too exaggerated.

The number of balls is one good and one bad, and the hitter Masaoka guesses that the opponent will throw a good ball to gain the initiative. And the pitcher Minami also felt that Masaoka would play the ball so as not to be cornered.

The third ball was thrown, and sure enough, it was a fastball that hit the good ball zone. Masaoka swung decisively, but the ball deflected to the outside corner in front of home plate.

This is a jet ball, and Nanbu Yoichi will throw a jet ball, which is completely unexpected by the hitter Masaoka.

Although most of the high school pitchers who can play in Koshien are equipped with unique skills, not only can the ball speed exceed 140 kilometers. Variation balls also tend to be able to master three or four or even more. But the vast majority of high school pitchers don't have that kind of ability.

The ball speed is more than 130 kilometers, and it can throw curved balls or slide balls. This is the standard configuration of the ace of the general school.

In the south, when I was in the third year of middle school, it was more or less of this type.

Compared to this standard version of the trump card. Fukushima at the Peace Academy is only a little better at ball control. Yono's starting pitcher, Oe, has a higher ball speed.

Because of this, most of the right pitchers that Masaoka has faced in the past as a left-hand hitter have thrown the ball from his outside corner to the inside corner.

While Masaoka knew that faster balls such as jet balls, which change in the opposite direction of a slider, were common among high-level pitchers, he never expected to encounter them in a game like today's.

What's more, this variation ball, known as the "jet ball" in Japan, is often seen as a variant of the two-seam speedball in the major leagues across the ocean, and the speed is not much different from the straight ball.

It's not easy for a young player in a freshman year of high school to see the trajectory at the moment of shooting.

In any case, the bat has been swung out, and it is too late to adjust. The white ball, which misses the core of the bat, flies towards third base.

Yono's third baseman waited for the ball to bounce on the ground before picking up the baseball, stepping on the base bag himself and passing it to second base.

The second baseman caught the ball firmly and doubled it off.

After coming on the field, it only took three goals to defuse the crisis, complete the offensive and defensive exchange, and the third ball just now, although it was a jet ball, the ball speed reached 134 kilometers.

"This south is a warm-up while playing."

Yabe, who was walking from the rest area to home plate, thought to himself.

The offense in the first half of the fifth inning was Yono's turn in the late quarter. Seven bats and eight bats hit the infield bocce ball one after another.

In the next ninth bat, it was the turn of the pitcher who was replaced in the previous inning.

When I was in middle school at the Peace Academy, Minami was also a member of the center. Yabe had several possibilities in his mind for a fight with him.

But it really started a throwing duel, and it only took four balls to let Nanbu Kongzhen out. This somewhat disappointed the former teammates of the Peace School baseball team, Southern Yoichi.

"I've given up on strikes, and I won't need this to get into a career anyway."

Next to home plate, Minami said to Yabe next to him while taking off his batting gloves.

Professional baseball doesn't require a pitcher to have the ability to hit. Even in the United States and Japan, one of the two leagues in professional baseball has a "DH", or the so-called designated strike system.

In this system, there is a player who is good at striking in place of the pitcher's order in the line, and the pitcher himself does not need to play on the offensive at all.

"You want to get into professional baseball? Don't go to university? ”

Yabe was a little puzzled, after all, if he didn't want to go to university, he wouldn't have had to bother to get into a school like Yangno in the first place.

"If there is a team in this year's draft, I won't take the test, otherwise I'll try to get into a college with a baseball club."

At this point in time, it would be wishful thinking for the south to want a professional team to be interested in them.

In the evaluation system of professional scouts, his popularity is probably infinitely close to zero.

However, if in the next month or two, he can snatch the trump card position from Kenzo Oe and lead Yono's baseball club to a good result in practice games and summer games. It's sure to impress the scouts.

Today's game is really just the beginning of a high school baseball career for the third-grader South.

……

The five-innings game continues to be a stage for the South to show their talents.

As if to show off the type of ball they have mastered, the speed ball, the cart ball, and the card ball appear one after another. Plus curveballs, slideballs, and jet balls. The southern part of the country uses the almost literal "Colorful Change Ball" to play around the center of the Peace Academy.

And the speed of the straight ball is imperceptibly approaching 140 kilometers.

Together with the four sticks of Fukushima Ichipei, this game of Peace School is three up and three down. Completely suppressed by opposing pitchers.

The rhythm of the game after that became pitcher battle.

Lee had a four-bad ball in the bottom half of the sixth inning to go to base. And Fukushima Ichihei also accidentally threw a dead ball in the first half of the eighth inning because of a drop in physical strength.

Other than that, no other player gets a chance to get off base. The score, of course, was not rewritten.

There are no extended innings for practice matches. The top half of the ninth inning was Yono's last chance to attack.

The first two players continued to come back in vain. The next third player was Jiro Ayanaga, who hit a home run in this game.

Asahi is actually only a first-year student. However, he was able to sit firmly in the four-batter position, relying on the special age structure of the Yono baseball club.

Even in other baseball schools, Asahaga is a hitter who can enter the starting lineup in the first year. The future growth is limitless.

Akio Yabe, who was in charge of the ball, once wondered if he wanted to escort this opponent. But when you think about it, in a practice game without any pressure of record, it may be better to work out with your opponent and your team.

After two good shots, Asahong, who didn't want to end the game, began to shoot every ball in the back, whether good or bad.

Throw-in after throw-in showed his excellent bat-handling skills.

In addition to being able to hit a home run for a long time, Asunaga Jiro's hitting stickiness seems to be excellent.

Grappling to the sixth ball. Fukushima throws an outside corner curl. The position of the ball is not right, or it is a little low, or it is not even clear if it is a good ball.

But the ball was still fished up by Asahi with a bat. Fly to the right side of the outfield.

Lee Wonrang, who plays as a right fielder, has another chance to verify the results of his defensive training.

He quickly ran to the spot he had predicted, raising his gloved left hand and holding it steady with his right hand for protection.

The ball landed in the pocket of the glove unbiasedly.

Three outs, and that's the end of the game.

Peace School was the winner of the game, and after Nanbu Yoichi played, Yono didn't lose a point.