Diamond No Ace: The Strongest Hitter Has Arrived

Chapter 456: Free II

"The opponent is going all out?"

Not only Todoroki Raizo had noticed. The Seido High School Baseball Team players had also picked up on the change in Hongmo High School.

Their opponent's shift made things more complicated.

Having set aside the obsession with winning or losing and focusing purely on playing the game, the Hongmo High School Baseball Team players were performing at their full capacity, perhaps even beyond it.

Even though the Seido High School Baseball Team would still win this game, they were going to have to spend real physical and mental energy to get there.

In the stands, the Yakushi players watched with keen interest.

Tomorrow, they would have their own hard game against Seido.

Whether it was burning through too much energy or revealing too many tactical cards, neither outcome was something the Seido High School Baseball Team wanted from today's game.

"These guys can't win, but they won't go quietly. How troublesome."

Isashiki Jun said unhappily.

Although the other teammates said nothing, they felt much the same way.

They didn't want to pour everything into a game they had already won.

As it turned out, that very attitude cost them.

In the bottom of the first inning, the Seido High School Baseball Team was caught off guard and Hongmo found an opening.

Their Third Batter reached base, and the Fourth Batter immediately followed with a hit.

Two outs, runners on First and Third Base.

Tanba on the pitcher's mound was breathing hard.

His eyes kept sweeping to First Base and Third Base. Those two runners were not sitting still, both clearly poised to run at the slightest opportunity.

With two outs, Hongmo had nothing to lose. They were going to run regardless of the odds. Even a slim chance of getting a run back was worth chasing.

It was like a drowning person reaching for anything within reach.

Even knowing it might not save them, they would still hold on.

In the Seido High School Baseball Team dugout, Coach Kataoka's expression darkened.

When no one was on base, Tanba's performance had been genuinely strong. Even Kataoka couldn't find fault with it.

But the moment runners appeared, everything changed.

He tensed up entirely, his pitching motion stiffening, unable to produce even 70% of his usual ability.

An Ace like that was deeply unsatisfying.

Zhang Han had only just begun recovery training, and Kawakami was still working through a slump.

Kawakami could pitch adequately without his sinker, but adequately was not enough. His overall level wasn't at 80% of his best.

A pitcher's decisive pitch defined their ceiling.

On the surface, the Seido High School Baseball Team was incredibly strong.

But in terms of pitching, they were genuinely lacking.

If this pitching staff didn't grow significantly in the three months before the Summer Tournament, they were going to struggle to hold on.

Just as Kataoka was rising from his seat, the situation on the field resolved itself.

"Ping!"

Hongmo High School's Fifth Batter hit the ball.

But it didn't travel far. As it passed First Base, a figure leaped and stopped it cold.

"Snap!"

The one who had made the play was the current captain of the Seido High School Baseball Team, Yuuki Tetsuya.

"Captain!"

"That was beautiful!"

The teammates erupted.

Koichiro Tanba had been bailed out by Yuuki.

Manager Ota rubbed his hands together, a warm smile on his face.

"Tetsuya has grown into an excellent player."

Who would have thought that when he first joined the team, he had been as unpolished as a new recruit?

His hitting had been smooth from the start, but his fielding had been completely insufficient. He had even said at the time that he didn't want to limit himself to one position, so as not to hold back his potential.

Manager Ota and the coaching staff had assumed Yuuki was well-rounded.

That turned out not to be the case at all.

His performance across positions had been the same, equally poor.

Thinking back to that Yuuki, and looking at the reliable captain he had become, it was genuinely moving.

Manager Ota was easily satisfied, but Coach Kataoka was not.

After the players came back in, he swept a cold look across the group.

"Is this the baseball you learned at Seido? How sloppy."

Every face in the dugout went red.

Even with the reprimand, the team didn't manage any progress in the second inning. Sakai, Tanba, and Kuramochi all came up and went down, each retired cleanly in their own way.

The only consolation was that in the bottom of the second inning, Tanba recovered his form.

He struck out two batters in a row and induced a fly ball from the third.

A clean three outs.

In the stands, the Yakushi players had gone quiet.

They were far from the pitcher's mound, yet even from that distance they could see the extent of the ball's movement.

Such velocity, and such a sharp break.

This Tanba was going to be difficult to deal with.

"Interesting! I want to get up there and face him right now!!"

Only Raichi Todoroki's eyes lit up with excitement. He couldn't wait to step in and take his cuts against Tanba.

As Raichi's father, Todoroki Raizo didn't share his son's enthusiasm. His focus was more on the question of how to beat Seido.

Hongmo High School had committed everything. Their players were performing at their peak, and the effort showed, particularly on defense, where they had given Seido no further scoring opportunities.

But even at that level, once Seido's Ace had found his form again, Hongmo's batters couldn't get anything going.

From beginning to end, they couldn't make clean contact.

Every swing was rushed.

Under those conditions, strikeouts and fly balls were the inevitable result.

Seido High School Baseball Team's ceiling might be higher than he had imagined.

Just as Todoroki Raizo was turning that over in his mind, the game moved to the top of the third inning.

The Seido High School Baseball Team's batting order had come back around for a second time.

First up was the Second Batter, Kominato Ryosuke, who had been retired earlier.

Zhang Han had also finished putting on his gear and walked to the on-deck circle.

The two of them came out of the dugout at almost the same moment.

The instant they appeared, the entire atmosphere in the Seido High School Baseball Team dugout shifted.

The earlier looseness and casual energy had vanished.

Almost to a person, the Seido players were now focused and ready.