Twelve more Outs.
If the American players knew Sawamura's thoughts now, they would find it unbelievable.
How could there be such a person?
Leading, being chased, and still calculating how many Outs were left?
Wasn't that crazy?
If the Americans knew Sawamura's thoughts, they would certainly mock him.
But now, they didn't know anything.
For the American players, their most important task was to score quickly.
Long-term plans did not exist for them.
Their most urgent and important task was to catch up quickly.
They had little time left.
In the previous five innings, they truly saw Sawamura's strength.
And the Americans clearly knew this was not a full-powered Sawamura.
He never threw tricky breaking balls.
If not for that, how much trouble could Sawamura bring them?
That was an unknown.
The American team was ambitious, wanting to catch up as much as possible.
Even if they couldn't score in one go, they wanted to get at least one hit to give hope to the following batters.
But obviously, Sawamura didn't plan that.
Or rather, the "Great Demon King" didn't want to cooperate.
"STRIKE!"
"STRIKE!!"
"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!"
The American team's ninth batter stood dumbfounded in the Batter's Box, his eyes full of disbelief.
According to their original plan, they had already seen through Sawamura's pitching.
Even if he couldn't get a hit, he should have been able to time the ball to make contact.
Unexpectedly, Sawamura used a breaking ball at the crucial moment.
Not an ordinary breaking ball, but one with a large movement, causing him to swing and miss.
"Sawamura's breaking ball was finally unleashed!!!"
"Ohh!"
"Finally!!"
"So Renji Could Do it?"
"Amazing!"
This scene shocked everyone present immensely.
In Japan team's resting area, Coach Takeda and the assistant coach even stood up excitedly.
This was truly amazing!
Of course, this wasn't about Sawamura, but about Renji.
Who would have thought he caught Sawamura's ball so quickly?
This was a very meaningful thing.
Very meaningful.
On the pitcher's mound, in the catcher's position, and even in the dugout.
Sawamura, Renji, and Miyuki all secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, Sawamura recklessly used such a high-level breaking ball, which actually carried a very high risk.
There was a high probability that Renji wouldn't be able to catch the ball.
Fortunately, Luck smiled upon them, and this did not happen.
With a 50% chance, Renji ultimately caught the ball.
As long as Renji caught this ball, this scene would remain like a malignant tumor in the minds of all American players.
They would no longer be able to treat Sawamura's breaking balls as nothing.
According to their experience, even if the opponent chose a certain pitch next, the breaking ball would sting like a poisonous thorn, irritating and affecting them.
This is the premise of bluffing.
You must hold a weapon that could threaten your opponent.
Otherwise, how could it be called bluffing?
Now, what they hold in their hands is exactly such a weapon.
A weapon that can threaten the American players.
Renji, positioned as catcher, greatly exhaled inside.
He was a very calm person, and did not believe that in this critical situation, he could break through in the moment and completely catch Sawamura's breaking ball.
Having such ambition is good, but to think you've already mastered it is foolish.
As the brain of the Komadai Fujimaki High School baseball team, Renji was definitely no fool.
He clearly understood the significance of catching that ball — it was a bluff.
To continue fighting American players, they still had to rely on fastballs, normal Moving, and several simple breaking balls.
Change up!
Moving up!!
Normal Cutter!
Up to now, Renji was confident he could catch only these five types of pitches.
Fastballs and Moving balls had almost been read by American players.
Using those pitches to compete with them again was obviously not a wise decision.
If they wanted to continue fighting them, they had to flexibly use the remaining pitches.
At this moment, the American batter was up — their first batter in the lineup.
The very handsome and popular Francis.
Renji was somewhat dissatisfied with this.
If possible, he actually did not want to face this pretty boy Francis so early.
Though this guy looked fancy, his ability was by no means weak.
Even among so many American players, his hitting ability ranked in the top three.
Although he had suffered consecutive losses against Sawamura, to think he was no good because of that was a big mistake.
In fact, this kid was quite formidable. He was also one of the earliest batters to adapt to Sawamura's pitching.
If not for him, American players definitely would not have adapted so quickly to Sawamura's pitching.
Renji could basically see how American players privately communicated.
Originally, they thought those American players must be the individualistic type, not yielding to others.
As young players in a very important time of their career, everyone wanted to prove themselves, get more playing time, and show off what he got to anyone who was interested.
From this, you can actually notice that many of the players didn't prefer Allen playing at all, as all the limelight would be focused on him.
With this mindset, their cooperation might have problems.
In fact, judging from America's previous games, one could basically conclude:
This was not a very united team.
There was competition and unhealthy rivalry within the team.
When Coach Takeda analyzed the opponent's strength, he didn't specifically mention this.
But the attendees were sharp; even without Takeda's explicit words, they clearly saw it.
This might also be an opportunity!
At that time, probably all players had such a thought.
But when they actually played against these American players, the situation immediately changed drastically.
The apparent discord in the American team seemed to vanish all at once.
This was actually normal, though Renji found it a little puzzling.
But Miyuki and Sawamura clearly saw it and weren't surprised at all.
The American team was not originally a harmonious team.
Like Japan team, they were also temporarily assembled.
Temporarily assembled teams definitely have two shortcomings.
First is short coordination time; second is considerable internal disagreement.
Short time is self-explanatory — a factual reality.
Players from different places definitely had many differences in habits and thoughts.
This is the team's internal conflict.
Actually, Japan team had encountered the exact same problem.
Temporarily assembled teams are not strong.
Far from achieving the effect of 1 + 1 > 2.
The reason they solved it relatively smoothly later was mainly by splitting into the Tokyo lineup and the other regional lineup.
Then the two lineups developed a competitive consciousness.
With rivals, allies, and a goal to chase, those arrogant guys became noticeably more disciplined.
From this, one can also conclude a conclusion repeatedly proven before:
Sometimes, opponents can be more important than friends.
…