Ichihei Fukushima swung an empty stick at an outside corner slider. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In the blink of an eye, the number of balls came to two good and one bad.

At this point, Fukushima finally realized that he was completely caught up in the rhythm of the opposing catcher's ball.

Now the opponent has two bad balls in his hand as chips. For Fukushima, however, it had to adopt a more cautious swing strategy.

"Hit again! You can definitely hit it! ”

Some of the spectators in the stands on first base let out such a shout. I don't know if it's the teachers and students of the Peace School School.。 But certainly supporters on their side.

The person who took the lead was probably a baseball experienced spectator. But what he shouted is the basis for the opponent's catcher Tsukishima's ball-matching pattern.

The average beater thinks that impatience is the enemy of the blow. In the case of a pitcher's good ball count, a conservative striking strategy is more preferred.

Whether it's swinging the bat "on the spot", holding the bat short, or speeding up the swing with a smaller swing. The price is all a decrease in the striking force.

Fukushima does not intend to adopt these strategies.

He was still going to swing with all his might.

The game has just begun, so there's no need to be so conservative.

Hasegawa throws an inducing high ball. Fukushima ignored it.

The next change ball tricked his air vibration. Strikeouts out.

"You can play the last ball as a finger cross."

As he walked back to the rest area, Yabe Akio said to Fukushima.

"If it's a fork, you're going to hit it."

Kazuhei Fukushima saw the path of the ball.

"A drop with a low inside corner is a change ball."

However, the opponent's pitcher, Hasegawa, is good at falling and changing the ball, which is a longitudinal slide rather than a knuckle ball.

Although over the years, more and more college pitchers have started to practice this game. But overall, longitudinal slides are nowhere near as common as finger balls and speed balls.

It's certainly not the first time Fukushima has seen this kind of play in a game. But to be honest, he had only met once before at the Tokyo Conference in his second year.

There are many ways to classify the types of change balls.

One of the divisions is to divide all the changing balls into two types: "spinning" and "not rotating".

The main trend of the falling change ball is the fork ball and the speed ball, both of which belong to the category of "no turn".

By reducing the speed of the baseball's spin, the ball stalls and falls as it approaches home plate.

Whereas longitudinal sliders are different. Although it is longitudinal, it is always a type of slider.

It is a ball seed of "spinning".

The reason why a baseball falls in front of home plate is also from spin rather than stall.

Although it is similar to the finger fork ball in terms of activity trajectory, the difference in speed is not small.

This is reflected in the striking aspect, which is that the chances are completely different when swinging the bat.

Ichihei Fukushima has more experience with knuckles than vertical sliders. For a moment, the instinct of the body drove both hands to swing the stick according to the feeling of the finger fork ball. The result, of course, is aeroviation.

"The next time I hit a vertical slide, I should be able to hit it."

Fukushima said to Yabe.

"However, there is another thing that Hasegawa is a pitcher that is difficult to deal with."

"Which point?"

"Actually, he can throw a fork, but he rarely uses it."

Not from college baseball-related websites. Rather, from the message board where photography enthusiasts share their work. Tako, the intelligence officer, found a group of photos of the Ninten Institute of Technology competing at the Kyoto Prefectural Conference.

One of them happens to be the action of pitcher Hasegawa in the moment before he throws the ball.

The high-speed shutter clearly captures the details of the hand. The middle and index fingers are sandwiched between the baseball. Typical finger pruning ball grip.

……

Compared with the opponent's catcher Changjima, Li Yuanrang's current ball distribution is still slightly dogmatic and rigid. A lot of the time it looks like a textbook.

Luckily, his partner, Fukushima, is a pitcher with excellent ball handling.

Famous catchers write in their memoirs such as "a straight ball in an ambiguous corner of the good ball area" or "a curveball that sweeps high in the outside corner and turns into a bad ball", but Fukushima Ichihei can throw the ball that ordinary college pitchers can't master.

Relying on this, Li Yuanrang continued to suppress the opponent's line in the first round of confrontation.

In the second half of the fourth inning, when he stepped into the strike zone for the second time, the score was still 0-0.

Tsukishima's strategy of good ball first is still being implemented.

However, he has been wary of Li Yuanrang.

The first ball was a low ball from the outside corner, which was played as a throw-in that was infinitely close to a hit.

This is followed by two induced balls of change in a row.

Li Yuanrang didn't even swing the bat.

It was extremely rare in this game that the number of balls became one good and two bad, and the shooting was lagging behind.

"Sure enough, it's the same as the legend, it's a very powerful ball eye. Tonight's "Fierce Fight Koshien" will probably report on this as a focus. ”

Tsuneshima, who was squatting at home plate, talked to Li Yuanrang for the first time today.

""Fierce Fight Koshien"? No, no, it's better to report your good ball first. ”

"Oh? Did you find out about this? ”

The organizer of the Koshien Games in the summer is the "Isasa Shimbun" of the head office in Osaka.

The newspaper is also the majority shareholder of the "Every Dynasty TV Station".

Every year during the Koshien festival, the TV station will launch a report program called "Fierce Fight Koshien". It will be broadcast on the night of the matchday.

Although as a college player, it is worth boasting about scoring Koshien and then being interviewed and reported by this show.

However, in terms of editorial policy, in recent years, the teams that will be covered in depth after the first two rounds of matches are the teams that lost the game on the same day.

So of course Li Yuanrang is not happy to be the target of the show now.

He also hopes to keep going.

……

Tsuneshima, the catcher of Rentian Industries, has always suspected that his matching pattern has been seen through by the opponent. And Li Yuanrang's words just now verified this point.

But judging from the course of the game, most of the hitters at the Peace Academy were at a loss for Hasegawa's pitching.

This is also the reason why Tsukishima dares to carry out this strategy.

Even if you know that the next ball may be a good ball, the average hitter may not be able to hit it.

His partner, Hasegawa, has enough pressure at least at the collegiate level.

After one good and two bad. The longitudinal slide ball with a low outside corner is just right to drill into the dead corner of the good ball area.

Hasegawa, a tall pitcher with long arms, threw the ball with his high-pressure shooting style that was a problem for most high-level hitters.

But for Li Yuanrang, as long as he relaxes his mind and keeps an eye on baseball.

It can be hit. And this time, the angle of the blow is also good enough.

The baseball passes through first and second base in mid-air, lands next to the stalwart and rolls deeper into the field.

Lee had plenty of time to run to second base.

The second hit in this game was still made by Li Yuanrang, and now he is standing on the lap. (To be continued.) )