Kusunoki Fumiya!
Isashiki Jun!
Azuma Kiyokuni!
Yūki Tetsuya!!
These guys are the real deal on Seidō's First String.
They make up the team's strong batting lineup.
Although in recent years, they have not been able to enter Koshien, they send players to professional teams every year, and these players perform remarkably after entering professional teams.
Because of this, the outside world's evaluation of their strength is very high.
Everyone especially raves about their batting lineup.
Seidō is known for its strong hitters.
Everyone agrees that as long as this team is equipped with an excellent pitcher, they absolutely have the qualifications to compete in Koshien.
However, the core batting lineup of such a team had now all lost to a first-year junior.
While the everyone around them were shocked and excited, they also felt a little uncomfortable.
"Damn, getting shut down by a first-year?" one grumbled, a bit frustrated.
The fifth batter to appear was tall and looked relatively mature. The most interesting thing was that he also had two small mustaches on his lips.
He already looked mature, and with those, he looked like he was in his thirties.
This player's name is Isashiki Jun.
He is an outfielder on the team and bats eighth in the lineup.
But today, Coach Kataoka Tesshin bumped him up to fifth batter.
The other seniors failed.
Looking at Isashiki, no one had much hope.
But Kataoka, as the chief umpire, didn't think so.
Isashiki isn't as good a hitter as the main players, but he's got one thing they don't: his swing is totally unpredictable.
"Think you've got him figured out? Guess again," some might say.
Takigawa, in the catcher's spot, knew what Isashiki could do, so he wasn't going to underestimate him.
"His batting is all over the place; the more you try to trick him, the easier it is for him to hit. Let's go straight at him!" he declared confidently.
To show he meant it, he put his glove right in the middle of the strike zone: a head-on battle.
Kataoka saw this out of the corner of his eye.
To be honest, he even felt a bit bad for the batter.
Takigawa himself is a very excellent catcher, and he is very familiar with the batters on the team.
The pitches he called were precisely aimed at each player's weakness.
Takumi just had to do one thing: throw the ball where Takigawa wanted it.
Kataoka wanted to see Isashiki and Takumi go head-to-head, but now it seemed pointless.
He had already knew the outcome.
Takumi, on the mound, didn't hesitate when he got the signal.
Even though it was a strike right down the middle, he threw it without thinking.
Boom!
The spiral ball spun at high speed and was in front of Isashiki in no time.
"A strike right down the middle? You think I'm a joke?" he exclaimed, a surge of indignation flooding him.
He felt his blood boil.
If it was somewhere else, maybe.
Faced with the spinning spiral ball, he might not swing at the first pitch.
Although he is an aggressive batter, he'll also play it smart against a tough opponent.
But now, the ball was right down the middle.
He couldn't let that go.
If he let that pitch pass, he'd regret it later.
"Don't underestimate me!" he growled, swinging without holding back.
The bat connected, hitting the ball.
Ping!
His face suddenly went pale.
So heavy!
He had heard from the older guys that Takumi's pitches were heavy, even though he didn't look like much.
The ball had a lot of power.
Some guys had even had their bats knocked out of their hands.
Isashiki tried to prepare himself.
He lowered his stance and put everything into his swing.
He figured that with his prep, he could hit anything.
But reality hit him hard.
When he actually made contact, he realized it wasn't as simple as he thought.
He could feel the force of the pitch in his hands.
Even though he hit it, he couldn't control where it went or how fast it was going.
The ball didn't go very far.
The second baseman ran forward, picked it up, and threw it to first base.
Smack!
"Out!"
Takumi struck out five seniors in a row, racking up five straight wins.
"Couldn't even hit a fastball down the middle?" one of the players scoffed, with a mix of disbelief and embarrassment.
"Just how good is that first-year's pitching, anyway?" another wondered aloud, with a hint of awe.
Before, the players might not have really understood.
But they saw the last at-bat crystal clear.
He didn't do anything special, just threw a spiral ball right down the middle.
That's supposed to be the easiest pitch for a hitter to handle.
Isashiki reacted quick; even though he was seeing it for the first time, he found the sweet spot.
He put everything he had into that swing.
A regular pitch would've been a home run, no doubt.
But the ball he hit only went about twenty meters before dropping.
That was a tough loss.
For the batters coming up next, it was a warning.
If they couldn't hit it in a straight-up fight, what could they do?
Takumi stood on the mound, looking larger than life.
Everyone was awestruck.
Sending more batters up to the plate seemed kind of pointless.
"Alright, you guys again," Coach Kataoka Tesshin announced, glancing at the ones who had just batted.
He wanted the team's top hitters to give it another shot.
"Coach!" Takigawa protested, thinking this seemed a little unfair.
"Again," Takumi readily agreed, with a confident grin.
Since the first-year was stepping up to the plate, they couldn't exactly refuse.
The sixth batter was Kusunoki, back for another shot.
This time, he had a bit of a read on Takumi's pitches, so he wasn't going in completely blind.