“out.“

After the failure of the Sakura Merlin runner Uchiyama to steal the base, the bottom half of the seventh inning ended here.

"Sakai, it's up to you to pitch in the next game." Superintendent Kataoka said to Yu Sakai, who was already warmed up.

"Yes!" Yu Sakai nodded.

In the next eighth and ninth innings, Qingdao's line once again showed their strong strength, scoring another 1 point from Sakura Merlin pitcher, and finally ended the quarterfinals with J. Oberlin with a score of 7:3.

As the air raid sirens sounded to symbolize the end of the game, the captains of Seichi and Sakura Merlin bowed to each other at home base, shook hands one by one, and then went to the stands on the Seichi side to greet the spectators who had come to cheer them on.

The spectators in the stands shouted at them: "Go for the semi-finals and finals!"

"On the 28th, we will go to the Yinye Shrine Stadium to support you!"

"I will definitely continue to enter Koshien this year!"

After receiving the blessings from the audience, the Seido players returned to the rest area to tidy up their belongings, and then left the Ichisugi Course in Tama City through the players' exclusive passage.

……

After the daily routine of running ten laps around the course, Yagami and Chris went to the cowshed to practice casting.

After throwing a few warm-up shots, Chris crouched down, signaled to Yagami Yagami, and set up the ball covers.

An outside corner near the edge of the brought? This kind of landing point is an ambiguous area between the good and bad areas for many hitters, and of course it is also a great test of Yagami's ball control.

Yagami nodded, turned the baseball in his hand with his left hand in the ball cover, and after holding it, he raised his right leg high and stepped forward, twisting his waist and abdomen, and his left hand drew a beautiful arc upward, throwing the baseball in his palm.

"Whew!"

The baseball flew out of the pitcher's mound and into Chris's open sleeve.

"Bang!"

The baseball flying from the pitcher's mound rushed into Chris's open ball sleeve with a crisp sound, and although the speed meter next to it showed a ball speed of only 143km/h, the powerful ball power and tail power still shook Chris's palm slightly numb.

Yagami Yagami had good ball control when the ball speed was not so high, so both Kataoka and Chris advised him to give up his fast ball with a fixed displacement and try to only throw fast straight balls that were mainly straight balls, so as to quickly improve his ball control.

The problem is that Yagami has his own persistence, like most pitchers, his future goal is still to go to the United States to develop in the major leagues, and if he has no intention of staying in Japanese professional baseball after graduating from high school, it is impossible for him to give up the type of ball he learned in the United States and change his pitching habits drastically. Of course, this also led to his ball control level since he transferred to Qingdao last year, and in almost a year, the improvement is not too large.

"Good shot!"

Chris got up and took out the baseball from inside the ball cover and threw it back to Yagami Yagami, then placed the ball cover in the outer corner again, "Yagami, the slider in the low area of the outside corner." ”

Yagami caught the baseball thrown by Chris, spun around, held it and raised his leg to step forward, waving his arm to throw the baseball in his palm.

"Whew!"

The baseball, which flew out again at the pitcher's mound, sprinted quickly towards Chris's location, then slid sideways into the outside corner halfway through and landed into Chris's open ball sleeve.

"Stretch the ball."

After crouching again, Chris moved the ball sleeve inward slightly, and asked Yagami for a quick sinking ball in the middle and low position.

In this way, after the two of them finished throwing the first set of fifteen balls, Chris got up and said, "The pitching is in good shape. ”

"From my side, there are no problems with the movements...... Chris was about to continue, but was suddenly interrupted by Yagami Yagama: "You, don't always worry about my state, is there any sign of recurrence of the injury on your shoulder, did you feel any discomfort when you caught it?" ”

“……”

The two of them cared about each other like this, and Chris then threw the baseball in his hand to Yagami Yagami, and then crouched down again to start a new round of shooting practice.

"Whew!"

Yagami turned the baseball in his left hand, and after determining how to hold it, he raised his leg, took a step, raised his arm, and waved the baseball in his palm.

"Straight ball?"

Unlike the fifteen pitches in the first group, which are matched by Chris, the catcher, the fifteen pitches in the second group will be given to the pitcher, Yagami Yagami, and he will be allowed to play on his own.

Chris looked at the baseball speeding from the pitcher's mound, it looked like a straight ball from the outside corner, but just as the baseball was about to fly into home plate, it was deflecting more and more towards the outside corner.

Chris hurriedly moved the ball sleeve to chase after it, but he could only brush the baseball flying past and watch it fly into the rear.

Carter balls?

While Chris got up to pick up the ball, he said directly: "Xiaoye, why do you want to practice a new ball again!?" ”

"I'm just going to give it a try."

Yagami Ye only started to practice carter ball after he was promoted to the second grade, and the carter ball is a simplified ball in Japan that is a four-seam fast ball in the outward fast ball and the outward cut fast ball in the two-seam fast ball, even if Yagami Night can throw the outward fast ball and the outward fast ball (although because the completion is not high, the thrown ball is easy to be beaten by the beater to figure out the way of the ball), but this does not mean that he can easily learn the carter ball, in addition to Matsuda senior's more cautious matching, He wouldn't let Yagami pitch some balls that he had rarely touched, causing Yagami to improve his learning of Carter Ball until some time ago. After all, no matter how complete or not you are, learning a few more new balls will always make it more difficult for the hitter to conquer him. "You......" Chris couldn't guess what Yagami was thinking? Raising his hand and picking his hair, he continued: "When you are approaching an important game, you can't be overly distracted! When the game is over, I'll practice with you......"

"Whether it's Senior Matsuda, or Miyuki and Kuroza, I'll tell them okay and ask them not to help you practice a new game......

After the morning training and breakfast, Superintendent Kataoka asked the first army to assemble in the conference room, then turned on the TV and began to play the video of the match between Inagi Kogyo and the Red Sea Osuda, which was the video of the quarterfinals of the 88th National High School Wild Ball Tournament in West Tokyo.

After the 2 hours and 43 minutes of video was played, Superintendent Kataoka put his hands behind his back and stood in front of the first army and said, "According to Inagi's arrangement in the quarterfinals, I guess they may arrange their ace and first-year left pitcher to play in the semi-finals against us." ”。

"For their ace Saito, I have faced him before at the Tokyo Metropolitan University Wild Ball Tournament in the spring, of course! It's been another three months now, and you should be able to get an idea of how far he's progressed through the footage of these games......"

"As for that first-year left pitcher, you can't treat him like an ordinary first-year, and in the semifinals on a cloudy day, I don't want you to be eliminated for underestimating others, are you?"