Between various middle schools, because of the direct competition, they were very wary of each other. At this time, a team like Akagi and a Pitcher like Sawamura suddenly popped up, so naturally, they wanted to see and interact with them.
During that time, Sawamura had Sano reject all practice game invitations.
In a situation where they couldn't get what they wanted, it unexpectedly created a hunger marketing effect.
For Akagi, this was like a pie falling from the sky. Now, Akagi has no shortage of opponents for practice games. This is incredibly valuable for a First-year students team. In his previous life, the team Sawamura led often made low-level mistakes even in their Third Years. Why? Because they played too few games and lacked experience.
In this life, it seems Sawamura no longer needs to worry about finding practice game opponents.
The opponent Sawamura chose was Nagata Middle School.
A school only slightly stronger than Akagi, a famous 'one-round trip' team in tournaments.
A one-round trip team, as the name suggests, is a super weak team that is consistently eliminated in the first round of major tournaments.
In national-level major tournaments, what kind of teams are the most numerous?
Everyone has their own criteria for this question. But there is one that everyone recognizes and that objectively exists: the one-round trip teams.
Such teams account for nearly half of the total participating teams. Simply in terms of numbers, they are definitely the most numerous.
Nagata is such a team; they haven't made it past the first round of a tournament in the last ten years and are affectionately called the 'perennial tail-ender'. No matter how much such a team loves Baseball, their highest aspirations for Baseball could never reach the level of Sawamura's.
After being reborn, Sawamura wasn't satisfied with just leading his Teammates to the National Tournament; he wanted to lead everyone to dominate the nation.
Nagata Middle School's greatest ideal now is just to break through the first round of the tournament and break the curse of the one-round trip. Even their passionate Captain only calls for everyone to create the best record in Nagata's history... Previously, about fourteen or fifteen years ago, Nagata once made it into the Nagano Prefecture Top 16.
This ranking would indeed be considered quite good in Tokyo. But in Nagano, there are only about forty middle schools in total, so the Top 16 at most means winning the second round. For some with good luck in the draw, winning just one game makes them a Nagano Top 16... Despite their lack of strength, this doesn't hinder the Nagata Teammates' love for Baseball. They have many members and solid training; among the one-round trip teams, they are a relatively good practice game opponent.
So far, their practice game record is 15 games, 3 wins.
This is also why Sawamura chose them: they aren't strong, but the team is decent.
As soon as he entered Nagata, Sawamura received star-level treatment.
The Nagata Players gathered around him one by one, like stars surrounding the moon.
"Can you really throw 120 kilometers? You look barely over 1.6 meters tall. What's your height?"
"Which Little Leaguers were you with? I haven't heard of you before. You must be very famous in the Little Leaguers. Are you a transfer student?"
"Please give us your guidance!"
This posture didn't look like seniors to a junior or hosts to a guest at all; it was more like fans meeting an idol.
"I'm 1.66 meters!"
"I've never been in the Little Leaguers; I practiced on my own."
Sawamura answered the Nagata Players' questions with a smile, unable to help but complain in his heart: "With things like this, how am I supposed to play the upcoming game?"
Even so, Sawamura more or less understood why these Nagata Players were like this.
Because they love Baseball, they must have studied it a lot. To break the 'perennial tail-ender' curse, Sawamura believed they had certainly put in a lot of effort.
But even so,
they were still not confident.
Baseball, as a sport, has been played in this country for a very long time. Every round advanced in a tournament represents a completely different level of strength. Even if they worked hard and gave it their all, they were still confused about the future.
Can Nagata Middle School really win? Can they really win a single game in an official tournament?
Akagi is different!
Although Akagi was just established and had no advantage in seniority compared to Nagata, as long as they had a leader like Sawamura, this Ace Pitcher, the Nagata Players believed that Akagi would definitely not be stuck in the first round for long.
Whether in the real world or the 2D world, examples of a good Pitcher leading a team to rise are everywhere.
But such a Pitcher is truly rare. If they encountered one, they would even dare to dream of the nation, or even Koshien... Why did Nagata lack confidence? It was because they didn't have an Ace like Sawamura in their team.
Envy, worship, longing... complex emotions intertwined to produce such a strange phenomenon. The Nagata Players surrounded Sawamura like star-struck fans. In fact, they weren't just surrounding Sawamura; they were surrounding the dream in their hearts.
"Please take care of us!"
"Please take care of us!!!"
Sawamura accepted a ten-minute interview like a star, and then the game between the two sides officially began.
Top of the first inning, Nagata bats first.
"Swoosh!"
A pitch like a laser beam shot from Sawamura's hand and bored into Yamaguchi's open glove.
"Pop!!!"
The sound coming from the glove was exceptionally heavy, so heavy that the hearts of the Nagata Players sank.
Such fast ball speed, such heavy ball power!!!
Even though they had heard Shirin's Second String Team Players mention it before, seeing it with their own eyes still made them jump in surprise.
"The ball speed is so fast!"
"It looks like more than 120 kilometers, right? I've seen 120-kilometer balls at the batting cages, but they didn't seem as fast as his..."
"Is he really only twelve years old?"
The Nagata Players were buzzing with discussion, their eyes filled with envy and worship as they looked at Sawamura.
So strong, truly too strong! But why did such a good Pitcher go to Akagi instead of coming to our Nagata?
If we had such a Pitcher, then... the scene in their imagination was too beautiful, making the Nagata Teammates not even dare to hope for it.
"Strike, strike, strike! strikeout!!!"
"strikeout!"
"strikeout!!!"
With the ball speed soaring above 120, the Nagata Teammates were simply helpless.
Their Swing speed couldn't keep up with Sawamura's pitches at all, and predicting the timing of the Swing was beyond their capabilities. As a result, they could only rely on blind guessing to hit Sawamura's balls.
In this way, Sawamura easily got three Strikeouts, putting the Nagata Teammates three up, three down.
Speaking of which, Nagata's strength was about the same as Shirin's Second String Team. Since Shirin's Second String Team couldn't hit Sawamura's balls back then, it was naturally the same for the Nagata Players.
"Nice pitch!"
"Good job!!!"
Teammates gathered around Sawamura one by one.
They were very excited; since no balls were hit their way, they naturally didn't have to face the Baseball. Being able to deal with the opponent so easily and pleasantly was simply wonderful!