Feeling some of his confidce return with that last pitch, Kazuhiro squared up his shoulders once more and began his wind up. The next ball seemed to be an exact replica of before, beginning inside and moving slightly outside.
K almost shook his head inwardly. While he admitted that it was a good pitch, did he really think the same thing would work against him twice?
DOOONG!
With absolute confidce, K poured all of his strgth into his swing, meeting the ball just outside of the strike zone and sding it to the outfield.
He only needed one glance to know that no one would be able to stop it from sailing over the fce. As he dropped his bat and began his victory lap a the bases, K glanced at Kazuhiro atop the mound.
There was confusion in his features for a momt, before a look of acceptance appeared on his face.
This came as a surprise for K who thought that the kid would get flustered or be depressed after giving up another home run.
‘He’s just an anomaly…’ Kazuhiro said inwardly.
Despite giving up a home run, he wasn’t upset. He felt as if he had just touched upon a breakthrough, something that appeared as he was under the tremdous pressure of K’s aura.
The reason why he threw the same pitch twice was that he didn’t want to lose the fleeting ssation of that breakthrough. While it may have resulted in a home run for the opposition, he wasn’t too upset.
‘I need to keep pitching…’
K made his way a 3rd base and placed his foot down onto home plate, accepting the hi five from Yuta who was waiting for him. With his hit they were now up 5 in the nd innings, putting them into a commanding position.
Tatsuya walked past K and let out a small chuckle.
“Looks like the pitcher is throwing some meatballs now.”
In actuality, he was a little embarrassed since he’d be struck out in only 3 balls in the first inning. Yet two of his juniors in Yusuke and K had big hits from the same pitcher.
He was determined not to fall behind.
K on the other hand st a pitiful look towards Tatsuya.
‘He won’t be that easy from now on.’ He thought, sding a small prayer Tatsuya’s way.
“Didn’t want me to show you up eh?” Hiroki said with a smile, holding out his fist.
“The only thing that matters is we win, I don’t ev bother comparing our stats.” He said, however inwardly he was cursing the guy.
‘I won’t ever get to be MVP with this guy in my team!’
“Strike. Out!”
The sound of the umpires voice startled the few who were busy talking on the bch. They quickly turned their head only to see Tatsuya with a blank expression walking back with his bat dragging on the g.
“What? So quick?”
“How did that happ?”
A few words of confusion spread a, making it’s way to Tatsuya’s ears.
“D-Don’t look at me. I couldn’t ev get a whiff of his pitches, they’re completely differt to the first innings.” He said with confusion.
Makoto stood up from the bch and began to limber his muscular body up, since he was batting after Jun.
“List Tatsuya.”
His voice was deep and his tone indicated that he was about to impart some deep wisdom to his junior. It wasn’t oft that Makoto spoke up like this, so everyone listed.
“It’s okay to fail. You don’t need to make excuses for your failures, you just need to accept them. Everyone here has failed before, it’s how you get back up from your failures that determines what kind of man you are.”
Tatsuya stared blankly at the muscle-brained te and felt like hitting him over the head with the bat in his hands.
Yet before he could, a voice rang out from the field.
“3 outs, changeover!”
“Eh?”
Everyone who was listing to their captain’s impassioned speech regarding accountability and self improvemt, suddly turned their head to the field in confusion.
Like an exact replay of before, Jun wore a blank expression as he headed towards the bch, his bat dragging along the g beside him.
“His pitches have changed…” Jun said simply, feeling slightly embarrassed.
Yet it wasn’t just him who felt his face heat up.
Makoto who had just tried to act cool soon received the ire of everyone a him.
“I knew he was talking out of his ass.”
“Psh, idiot Captain.”
Everybody ignored the muscle-head and put on their gloves and caps before heading back out onto the field to start off the bottom of the nd innings.
Coach Hanada was probably the only person who was paying close atttion to the Shuei pitcher, ev as he walked off the field. His eyes narrowed as he thought deeply.
‘That kid has caught hold of something.’
Seiji wasn’t just spit-balling. He’d noticed that Kazuhiro was refining his pitches ever so slightly, beginning from the second ball he threw against K.
It wasn’t a coincidce or fluke that Tatsuya and Jun had struck out so spectacularly.
He subconsciously looked at the score and let out a small breath of relief.
‘I don’t think we’ll be getting any more runs this game.’ He stated inwardly.
K on the other hand, slowly made his way up to the mound. From his standpoint, it didn’t matter how well Kazuhiro pitched from now on. They had secured ough runs, so now it was his turn to hold onto them.
This was the Ace’s job.
Like a cold and unfeeling machine, K dispatched the next 3 batters with ease, using only 9 pitches total. His balls were crisp, dangerous and almost impossible to predict.
The nd innings was over in only a matter of momts, not ev allowing the players on the field to joy standing out in the sun for very long.
“Changeover”
“Nice pitching Ace.”
“You’re making it look easy out here.”