Diamond Ace Takanono

Chapter 15 Competition Atmosphere
game atmosphere
The Central Edogawa pitcher hit another near-the-knee slider ball that tricked the batter, followed by a straight ball high in the inside corner, and Kijima's fourth strikeout ended the third inning attack.

Takano asked for information about the Edogawa Central Little League during this gap.

"This Little League team is very strong. It is second only to the Marugame Little League team in the East Tokyo area. It is said that scouts from various high schools will go to their Little League team to scout every year."

"What about us?"

"In order not to interfere with practice, our team usually distributes them to different times."

"No wonder I didn't see it."

"However, what scouts watch most is the game. Only actual combat can reflect the real strength. The reason why Coach Ninomiya allows pitchers to participate in actual combat practice is also because the balls that cannot be shot in actual combat are pitched in the bullpen. No matter how good it is, it's useless," Hayakawa added.

"Cruel—" Gao Zhiye sorted out the booklet in his hand.

While everyone was discussing, the fourth round began.

Standing on the mound, Kijima's ace felt a little weak, and he had two hits in a row in the first inning, and two balls in a row against the third hitter.

"Not good, the pitcher kept shaking his head at the catcher." Hayakawa frowned.

"Probably because of being kicked out one after another, I no longer have confidence in my own ball." Shibazaki felt the same way.

The catcher applied for a timeout to buy some time for the pitcher. He frequently looked at the runner at first base, as if his mind was involved, and then threw another ball.

"Another bad ball."

"The catcher's glove seems to be placed low on the outside corner. I just shot two high balls in a row and they were all hit. It depends on whether the pitcher can hit the low ball."

The pitcher wiped the sweat off his brow, threw a pitch, pressed it down this time, but "touch—"

The hitter hits, doesn't hit well, falls in front of the shortstop infield, has a chance for a double play, but the ball seems to be hot, the shortstop drops the ball and picks it up again, the runner on first base has successfully thrown to the second base, the shortstop quickly adjusts to throw First base, but too late.

There was an uproar in the audience, and in the center of the commotion, the pitcher glanced at the full bases behind him, turned quickly, faced the home plate, lifted and leveled the dirt on the pitcher's mound, and sorted out his mood.

"No one out, bases loaded."

In this case, it is not surprising to drop a few points. The next hitter comes up and puts on a striking posture.

"Ah, this situation is too annoying." Takano muttered.

Hayakawa explained to him next to him: "In fact, hitters can also divide into real hits and fake hits. In the current situation, it is the real hits to grab points, so pitchers need to dare to throw and do a good job of going forward. The preparation, and then you join the actual combat practice, there is pitching training."

Sure enough, the next pitch, the batter hits, everyone in the infield moves, the catcher yells, the ball is thrown to second, then to first, and in the meantime the runners on third and second are back home Base, Kijima also got two outs. After a strike, the entire base bag was cleared, the runners were cleared, the pitcher seemed to recover a little bit, and the next hitter was quickly out of the infield.

Next is the defense of the Edogawa Central Little League. At present, although the Kijima Little League still has three offensive opportunities, the gap in strength is too large and they have almost lost.

The situation was also as Takano thought. In the second half of the game, Kijima made frequent mistakes, and the anxiety on the court could be felt even in the stands.

'What should I do if I'm in a game where I'm already behind so much. '

"If I were the coach, I might replace all the infielders now." Takano thought for a while, and answered Hayakawa's surprised question: "Guerrilla has made 2 turnovers so far, and the second baseman has made 1 turnover. Although it seems that only two of the four infielders made mistakes, the entire infielder has fallen into a quagmire of anxiety and must be replaced in order to save the atmosphere on the court.”

Hayakawa was shocked by Takano's boldness. After thinking about it, he nodded in agreement: "Yes, infield's beauty can calm the pitcher's heart. Similarly, infield's mistakes and impatience will also put more pressure on the pitcher."

But the choice of the Kijima Junior League is: "Player replacement, No. 1 pitcher Shibata dropped the plate, and No. 11 Yamaguchi-kun will replace Shibata-kun."

"Probably because the risk of changing the pitcher is less." Shibazaki recorded the change of game personnel in the score book, "Gao Jun, don't get too absorbed, remember to fill in the score book, the coach will check it."

"Ah - I forgot to fill in this game."

The air defense siren sounded again, and the first game ended, and the Edogawa Central Little League team won the game by a big score of 8-0. The next game started at 1 o'clock, and everyone took out their lunch boxes to eat.

"Gao Ye, where did you sleep just now?" Lang Zhi sat behind Gao Ye, and his bento had been eaten quickly at this time.

"How do you know I'm sleeping?"

"Isn't that obvious? The red marks on your face haven't disappeared."

"Huh? Is it obvious?" Everyone nodded and added fuel: "The coach probably saw it too."

In the opening ceremony, because of the heat, I sneaked away to sleep elsewhere. When the two groups of people were anxiously looking for him, I enjoyed my sleep very leisurely. It seems that my image has become like this. . . .

Takano gnawed at the meat in despair.

"So, where did you sleep." Lang Zhi posted it secretly.

"It's so hot, don't stick it so close," Gao Zhiye looked at Lang Zhi, and a bad idea came to his lips, "You put away all the paintings in the room in the future, and I will tell you."

"Eh? Why, why?"

"By the way, and I changed the thick curtains in your room, don't you think it's too hot?"

"Why did the layout of my room bother you?!" After finally overcoming the shadow, and bringing the two-dimensional girl back to the wall, Lang Zhi protested Gao Zhiye's request very much.

"Don't ask why, it just looks uncomfortable." Gao Zhiye became more and more confident as he spoke: "This is the right of being an older brother."

"Suddenly saying that I'm an older brother, it's really disgusting, you have no right to decide the layout of my room!" Lang Zhi frowned.

"Ah, yes, it seems that I need to talk to my mother about the mental health problems of minors and the problem of the opposite sex."

"Ahhh, you bastard Takano, if you speak ill of me to your mother, I will..." At this point, he suddenly got stuck. In terms of study, Takano was ranked at the top, and his interpersonal relationship in school , because he was too transparent, he couldn't inquire about it. If it was training, he seemed to have no position to say bad things compared to Gao Zhiye, who ran every morning and was self-disciplined.

So he stuck and sat down, staring at the back of his head shaking triumphantly in front of him, and vowed to find Gao Zhiye's sore foot.

When the people around sat in Sasaki, they felt a pang of regret. Therefore, where did Gao Zhiye sleep? Seeing that half of his face was covered with red marks, it seemed to be a cool and good place.

In the two games in the afternoon, there were four teams that were not ranked very high. Among them, the only one that caught Gao Zhiye's eyes was the catcher of the Shengzhi Little League. They defended first. When the team warmed up, the catcher received The pitcher's digging of sweet potatoes and quickly throwing to the second base to kill the base stealer is obviously much faster than the team that played before.

"That catcher threw the ball faster than the naked eye can see."

Gao Zhiye's words were recognized by Hayakawa, "But in real situations, it is not enough for the catcher to kill quickly. If the runner starts early, the ball is still in the pitcher's hand at this time, and the pitcher needs to throw to the catcher first. Throws to second base and steals the base, so if the pitcher's speed is not good, or the coordination of shooting and catching is not up to standard, then you still can't make a successful shot."

Gao Zhizhi nodded his head with concern.

"Speaking of Shengzhi Little League, does this name mean church?"

"That's right, it's the Little League under the name of a Christian school. In fact, there are many schools under the name of the church in Japan that play baseball. There is Tenri City in Nara, where there are Tenri High School and Tenri University. This "Tenri" is the Tenri Church. mean."

Knowing that Gao Zhiye is Chinese, many times his teammates will explain some Japanese common sense to him.

The Cage Minor League catcher, also a four-bat, hit a home run from left field to make it 1-1 with the game tied at 2-1.

"It's a home run." Gao Zhiye didn't really watch many games, and it was the first time he saw someone hit a home run in a game.

For some reason, Hayakawa patted him on the shoulder helplessly: "Yes, yes, it's a home run."

Gao Zhiye closed his mouth, and the game soon came to the fifth inning. The first hitter of Shengzhi Little League hit the first ball, and hit the opponent by surprise. The pitcher and the third baseman almost collided with each other on the ball. The team, so the first hitter hit base.

The second hitter strikes twice, causing the opposing infield to be very wary and unknowingly takes two steps forward, resulting in a ground ball behind the shortstop that could have been thrown straight away if the shortstop was still in place arrive.

With no outs on first and second base, the Cage made good use of the remaining outs and scored another run.

Hayakawa Akira said earnestly beside him: "Gao Jun, look, this is the way to torture the pitcher. The pitcher can get the hitter to keep the hitter in a state of guessing, and the hitter's frequent short bats can also keep the pitcher in a guessing state." under pressure."

Gao Zhiye nodded obediently, saying that in addition to pitching, various pitching tactics also need to be learned.

In the end, the Shengzhi Little League won the game 3:1. Gao Zhiye took the score book full and checked it with the coach tremblingly. Coach Ninomiya found that in addition to the score, there were some thoughts of Gao Zhiye, and the mark The word "Hayakawa" is probably something that Akira Hayakawa taught him during the game, so he put the score book back heavily into Takano's hands.

"There will be no next time. Can't the game excite you?" The last practice match was also the same. He sneaked away to other places and couldn't take the practice and spectator players seriously. Coach Ninomiya frowned.

"This time it was an accident. I promise to record it carefully every time I play."

"Is that so, since you promised that the post-match notes of each game will be checked by the assistant coach, do you have any objections to this solution?"

Gao Zhiye's scalp was numb: "No!"

(End of this chapter)