Ace of Diamond: Return of the Pitcher

At third base, Kanemaru had no idea that his actions had been seen through.

Before the game, the speculation of Watanabe had already been communicated to all the fielders.

Although everyone found it hard to believe, they still trusted Watanabe's judgment.

After all, paying attention to this wouldn't hurt.

So after taking the field, all the fielders tried their best to maintain a cold expression, not showing any emotions or actions.

They planned to use this flat expression to deceive their opponents and disrupt Shonan's judgment.

But Kanemaru never imagined that just by the way he squinted, the opponent could guess his current thoughts.

Of course, Matt doesn't have mind-reading abilities. What he can do is observe if Kanemaru is nervous.

Like now, he easily made the judgment.

Kanemaru's momentum was strong, and he looked like he was ready to act at any moment.

If someone were to say that Kanemaru wasn't intending to catch the ball, Matt wouldn't believe it.

'Very good!'

After spotting the flaw, Matt immediately signaled to his player to force the ball toward first base.

If they couldn't hit it, a bunt would suffice.

The most important thing was to disrupt Seidou High School's defense system and make their players question themselves.

'When they realize their guess was wrong, they will undoubtedly panic.'

Considering the strength of both teams, Shonan High School should have a hard time beating Seidou in a direct confrontation.

Shonan's only hope of winning lies in disrupting Seidou's system.

Only when Seidou's system breaks down will they have a chance to turn the tables.

'Let's go!'

Seeing the signal from their Coach, the players from Shonan High School didn't doubt it.

Although their Coach may be a bit eccentric, the instructions and signals he gives have never been wrong. Even if the situation can't be reversed immediately, they can still see the effects of the attack.

The batter on the field understood and quickly adjusted.

He even assumed a bunt stance right from the start.

This way, they forced Sawamura to throw some clear-cut pitches.

For bunts, a strong fastball is typically used. Such a pitch is difficult to bunt; even if the batter pulls back the bat and tries to swing again, it doesn't always work.

Especially when facing a pitcher like Sawamura, whether it's a bunt or a fake bunt, it's hard to guarantee a good hit.

But the Shonan batter didn't have time to worry about this.

What he had to do was hit the ball to first base.

Regardless of the outcome, as long as the ball rolls toward first base, it could shake the confidence of Seidou's players to some extent.

Of course, it would be even better if he could get a hit.

That way, they might even have a chance to score.

Without making the batter wait too long, Sawamura on the mound threw the ball at his usual fast pace.

WHRROOSH!!

The ball appeared out of nowhere, so fast that its release point couldn't even be seen.

'So fast!'

The batter silently groaned.

He did his best just to make contact with such a fastball.

Hitting it accurately toward first base was even harder.

But there was no choice—whether for the task assigned by the Coach or for the team, he had to do it, and he had to do it well.

He raised the bat and swung it fiercely.

The batter silently prayed in his heart that he would make contact with the ball.

But unfortunately, just as the baseball neared his hands, there was a sudden change.

Snap!

The baseball successfully avoided the bat and landed in Miyuki's open mitt.

"STRIKE!"

Sawamura completely suppressed the batter with a powerful breaking ball.

This should have been an exciting moment, but Miyuki couldn't be happy.

'They got it right again?!'

The opponent had guessed the location of Sawamura's pitches again.

'What the hell.'

'Was Nabe's analysis wrong? Or did we overlook some detail?'

Miyuki's brain was like a high-speed computer, running at full speed.

Various ideas kept popping up in his mind, and each one was rejected.

After just one inning, the information he had was still too little to make an accurate prediction.

"Forget about it!"

Seeing his partner in confusion, Sawamura decisively helped.

He shook his head firmly at Miyuki and then winked.

As a partner, Miyuki, of course, understood what Sawamura meant.

He nodded and then sent out the sign.

This pitch had significantly changed from the initial strategy.

In Shonan High School's dugout,

Matt, the coach, never took his monocular off Kanemaru's face.

Although he had pretended to bluff against others, his main focus was always on Kanemaru.

There was no change in his expression; he still looked eager, with a slight bend in his thigh, preparing to sprint.

'He was about to run forward!'

At this moment, Matt looked over to first base again. Maezono had also made a similar move. Though he wasn't driving forward, he was in a position to block the bunt.

'Very good!'

'Next time, use a slash bunt! The pitch direction won't change.'

If conditions allow, Coach Matt doesn't want to use signals this frequently.

Their tactics should be as secret as possible, but some things, once used too often, become an open secret.

The same goes for signals.

Once he uses too many signals, Seidou High School is bound to spot the flaw.

But he couldn't help it; if he didn't use the signals now, the opportunity might slip away.

So, no matter what, he had to take action and make sure the players followed suit.

A two-point deficit is still quite large; it would be best to catch up a bit!

The Superintendent, coach, and record keeper in Seidou's dugout noticed Matt's greedy thoughts.

These three were extremely sharp, and they quickly figured out Shonan's general intentions.

"Quite bold!"

Ochiai, stroking the little beard on his chin, chuckled.

Initially, they were a bit confused, but now they could almost confirm that the opponents were guessing the location of Sawamura's pitches based on Seidou's defense.

It was like a magic trick.

As long as the principles behind the magic weren't revealed, it always appeared incredibly mystical.

But once the mechanism of the magic trick was known or cracked,

No matter how amazing the trick, it would become worth nothing.

Understanding the opponent's movements was very significant for Seidou High School.

Seidou would quickly come up with a way to break it.

Of course, this inning still relied on the players to figure it out on their own.

During the game, Sawamura and Miyuki weren't as idle as the three in the dugout.

They didn't have time to focus on Coach Matt's reactions.

What they were thinking about was how to quickly and decisively take down their opponents.

Sawamura took his stance and pitched.

After adjusting to the previous pitch, the batter on the field clearly seemed more comfortable.

He was gradually starting to catch the rhythm of Sawamura's pitches.

He had already adjusted his swing timing to about 0.1 seconds earlier; he should be able to make contact.

Ping!

At the right moment, the batter swung his bat and hit the ball.

Not bad, his luck was on his side, as the bat made precise contact with the ball.

The baseball, after being hit, flew toward first base.

Miyuki, the catcher, furrowed his brow instinctively.

'Here it comes again!'

It was the same pattern as before—this time, the opponent had accurately guessed the general location of Sawamura's pitch.

'Before the hit, he already knew Sawamura would throw the ball inside.'

If not for that, there was no way the batter could have made such a clean hit against a fastball with an invisible release point.

At first base, Maezono was stunned.

He hadn't expected the ball to come his way.

But he quickly reacted. Seidou's training was thorough, and when fielders faced unexpected situations, their bodies would move before their brains could catch up.

Of course, this only applied when the ball was coming directly toward them. If the ball was falling some distance away from the fielder, their brains would have to react as well.

"Don't move!"

Just as Maezono was about to run forward, he suddenly heard a sharp command in his ear.

The voice was very familiar—his teammate. Instinctively, Maezono stopped at first base.

Then he saw Sawamura dash forward, scoop up the baseball, and throw it back to first base.

The whole movement was clean and precise—perfect beyond measure.

The result was, of course, excellent.

Snap!

"OUT!"

With one Out and no runners on base,

This reaction exceeded the expectations of both the spectators and the Shonan High School players.

After a brief wail from the crowd, cheers immediately rang out.

After all, the majority of people were supporting the King, Seidou High School, and Sawamura Eijun.

This small mistake didn't affect Coach Matt in Shonan's dugout.

Or rather, Coach Matt was feeling quite pleased.

It was like everything was going according to his plan.

'Just now, Sawamura taking the Out was entirely due to his own strength.'

'It looked very perfect and powerful.'

'But baseball isn't a one-man game. Relying on Sawamura alone, Seidou won't be able to make it.'

'For today's match, this Demon King would eventually be worn down.'

This is a good thing.

Even if the temporary offense hasn't shown results yet, from a long-term perspective,

The game situation is starting to tilt in Shonan High School's favor.

On the pitcher's mound,

Sawamura's expression was calm.

Sawamura has rich experience from his own games!

When it comes to theoretical knowledge, Sawamura is not good at it.

But after playing many games, certain things naturally get engraved in Eijun's bones.

This is actually easy to understand. It's like running into a wall. Once you hit it, you know there's no way through, so you naturally learn to turn around.

Sawamura has more than 20 years of baseball experience. What kind of situation has he not encountered in the game?

Although there are few eccentric people like Shonan High School's Superintendent Matt, they are not impossible to find.

Many people use knowledge from other fields to break into baseball. These individuals may already have relatively mature experience or even high achievements in certain areas.

When they start playing baseball, they immediately think of their previous experiences, especially successful ones.

As for whether these pieces of knowledge are still useful on the baseball field, that depends on the individual's perspective.

But one thing must be said:

Every time new knowledge enters the sport, it brings significant change to baseball.

Get rid of the unnecessary and keep the essence.

In the end, what appears on the baseball field is the crystallization of everyone's wisdom.

Physical fitness, strategic planning, tactical execution…

These have all reached an extremely high level.

Sawamura has been in top-level international competitions for over a decade.

His experience is a great valuable asset.

How did Shonan High School figure out his pitching location?

Sawamura doesn't know.

Nor does he feel the need to figure it out.

He doesn't have obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Why does he need to figure out the reason, know what to do, and how to resolve it?

There are some things that, even if you don't understand the principle, it doesn't prevent you from finding a solution.

It's just like now, Sawamura has already come up with a solution in his mind.

Since the opponent can figure out where he's throwing the ball, then he will throw balls that the batter can't hit at all.

At this point, Sawamura signals to his teammates to be ready at any moment.

Then, he takes a stance and throws the ball.

His right-hand mitt is pushed forward like a wall, and with the obstruction of the mitt and his body, Sawamura's pitching hand cannot be seen at all.

The batter, just stepping up to the plate, shudders when he sees Sawamura's pitching form.

Originally, he thought that having seen Sawamura pitch once, it would be much easier this time. But to his surprise, that was not the case at all. The baseball came out of nowhere, and in the blink of an eye, it was right in front of him.

'So fast!'

This was not just an exclamation, but a real surprise.

Even if he knew where Sawamura's ball was going, it would still seem very fast in the strike zone.

But he never imagined it could be this fast!

In the blink of an eye, it was right next to him, and before he could react, the baseball had already slipped into Miyuki's Mitt.

SNAP!

"STRIKE!"

In the rest area of Shonan High School.

Uesugi Ken muttered.

"Look, the Demon King is really angry now!"

When Sawamura goes on a rampage, it's hard for batters to hit his ball.

Uesugi Ken had a clear memory of this.

Back in middle school, when they played a match between Yokozuna Middle School and Akagi Middle School, Sawamura set a strikeout record for middle school students.

'Once that man gets serious, he's exactly like a real demon, and definitely not something ordinary players can compare to.'

Although he is a player for Shonan High School, Uesugi Ken never thought that in today's match, Shonan High School would have any chance.

Perhaps Matt and the senior players might not like this.

But it doesn't matter. This is the truth.

And the truth is often very, very cruel.

Just as Uesugi Ken had thought, Sawamura then activated the demon switch.

He actually went all-out against Shonan High School's lower batting lineup.

Sawamura, with a pitching speed of 145 km/h, combined with Wall-Making Pitching Form, made his ball seem to have the speed of a 155 km/h fastball.

Even if Sawamura didn't use a breaking ball, batters would still find it hard to hit. Not to mention that on top of that, he adds a sharp breaking ball.

Sawamura easily toyed with Shonan High School's batters.

"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!"

"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!"

He got two clean strikeouts and completed the defense for this inning.

In Shonan High School's rest area.

The assistant coach of Shonan High School bit his lip tightly, but his lips couldn't help trembling.

Who doesn't have a little ambition?

The assistant coach of Shonan High School is a very ambitious person.

Originally, he dreamed that Shonan High School would keep advancing and eventually defeat the king, Seidou, to win the Kanto Championship.

But he didn't expect the gap between the two teams to be so large.

Sawamura, known as the Demon King, was only slightly serious, and their team immediately fell apart.

How can they continue playing like this?

The gap is too big!

"Coach?"

When there's confusion in your heart, you naturally have to seek help from your own coach.

When feeling lost, one naturally seeks help from their own coach.

The assistant coach of Shonan High School directed a pleading look toward their coach.

That would be Matt.

There was little expression on Matt's handsome face.

At some point, Matt regained the calm demeanor he had at the start.

When he spoke, he was as polite as ever.

"Don't worry, it's only the fifth inning. It's impossible to keep up this all-out effort for the entire game."

In the face of the consecutive strikeouts from Sawamura, Matt remained unexpectedly calm.

Or perhaps, the situation before him had already played out many times in his mind.

The version of Sawamura who no longer trusted his teammates, the one who wanted to win on his own, was exactly what Matt wanted to see.

But unfortunately, Matt was destined to be disappointed.

Upon returning to the dugout, Sawamura and Miyuki immediately heard the analysis from Coach Kataoka and the others.

It seemed that the opponents were determining the defensive focus and guessing Sawamura's pitching direction through micro-expressions or small movements.

"If they really have that skill, why don't they look for clues in Sawamura's face?" Miyuki asked, skeptical.

His suspicious nature had become ingrained in him, whether or not he was naturally like this.

As a catcher, thinking critically was always a good habit.

"Sawamura's pitch has so many variations, and he doesn't show many expressions, so it should be very hard for them to lock in..." Watanabe's words were quite enlightening.

If Sawamura couldn't be read due to the many variations and lack of expressions, perhaps they could do the same.

While they didn't have as many variations, they could certainly try making some strange faces!

Just imagining how Shonan's players would react to the strange faces of the players from Seidou High made them excited.

Bottom of the fifth inning, Seidou High attacks.

Facing the oddball pitcher, Kawaki, relying on the lower batters to score seemed somewhat unrealistic.

The facts proved this, as several players were quickly retired.

The game entered the sixth inning.

The score remained 2-0, with Seidou leading by two runs.

Even after conceding runs, Shonan High remained calm and quickly stabilized the situation.

Just this alone showed the great potential of Shonan High, deserving of Seidou's respect.

The more respect they showed their opponents, the more they needed to give their all.

Top of the sixth inning, Shonan High attacks.

Now that they understood their opponent's patterns, Sawamura and Miyuki were no longer bothered by their opponent's tactics.

They quickly developed a strategy and executed it decisively.

In no time, Sawamura had made three Outs.

In the Shonan High dugout.

The expression of Coach Matt, who had just relaxed, became tense again.

'It felt strange.'

Matt couldn't pinpoint exactly what the problem was, but he felt something was off. Why had the offense that worked before suddenly lost its effect?

'Was it just bad luck, or had the opponents seen through something?'

He had no way of knowing. He could only wait for the rest of the game to confirm.

Bottom of the sixth inning, Seidou High attacks.

At this point, the top batters of Seidou were up.

Seeing this lineup, all the Seidou supporters erupted in cheers.

In the stands, Owada Akiko gazed at Seidou's players, especially pitcher Sawamura, in awe.

She felt utterly captivated.

"Seidou High truly is steady."

Beside her, Fujio nodded thoughtfully.

When the lightning strikes in silence, it's even more wonderful.

The recent exchanges between the two teams had been subtle enough that most people wouldn't have noticed. Fortunately, Fujio, an experienced reporter, had his own toolbox.

From his equipment, he clearly noticed something.

He couldn't exactly say what, but just now, after a very intense exchange between the two teams, Sawamura had shown excellent judgment.

In the most crucial moments, he was able to showcase his best abilities.

'This alone made Sawamura worthy of the title of Maou.'

'At the most needed times, he stepped up on his own. Protecting his mound, and leading his team forward.'

'This was the true soul that an Ace pitcher should have!'

'Without a doubt, Sawamura was one of the best Ace pitchers in high school, if not the very best.'

'As for Shonan's Kawaki, although he was also an excellent pitcher, he still lacked the necessary experience.'

Without a comparison, this wouldn't be noticeable, but with Sawamura as the benchmark, no matter how well Kawaki performed, it couldn't be seen.

...