Summary
The chapter opens with Furuya taking out the first batter with a fly to the shortstop. The second batter, Sawashita, gets struck out with the last pitch measured at 151 km/h. The audience exclaims that these roaring fastballs is what defines Furuya Satoru’s pitching. Miyuki comments that while not all his pitches were in the frame, they weren’t completely off the mark either. He noted that Furuya is doing pretty good today and does not seem overtly tense.
From the dugout, Sawamura shouts to Furuya: “That’s right! That’s your weapon! Pressuring persistently with those terrorizing fastballs. It’s super fastball harrassment! You’re gonna get sued by them!”. Furuya’s not happy with his commentary, while Haruichi wonders if Sawamura even understands what he just said. Meawhile, Kuramochi reprimands Sawamura that as the ace, he shouldn’t be heckling people from the bench.
Back on the field, Miyuki notes that Hachiya-ouji is a team that just keeps swinging and seems to be targeting Furuya’s straight fastball. The third batter, Kawabata, is up next. Furuya throws the first pitch and Kawabata notes that it is no wonder that everyone found it hard to target the fastball when it breaks at that speed. Hachiya-ouji’s coach observes that this battery’s style of attack is pitching high and lows using a mix of fastballs and breaking balls.
Kawabata continues that is tough enough to try and target that straight fastball, let alone having to also discern and not swing at the low bait balls. To survive the West Tokyo tournament where there is a concentration of many of the nation’s top pitchers (Sanada, Amahisa, Mei and Furuya are pictured), it’s simply not enough to get by with just having a strong defense. With that, he connects with Furuya’s pitch and hits a grounder to center.
However, Haruichi dives to catch it, throws it to Kuramochi who outs Kawabata at first base. Seidou survives defending this first inning. As they leave the field, Furuya compliments Haruichi and he responds that it was due to the good momentum that Furuya had initiated on the mount. Miyuki seems convinced that they may be targeting Furuya’s fastball.
Hachiya-ouji now takes position on the field for their defense, with Natsume their ace on the mount. According to Nabe, Natsume is a right-handed sidearm pitcher who mainly pitches breaking balls that moves and gets batters outted with grounders. The plan is to not be concerned about the speed but to maintain their form and complete their swing. Kuramochi’s is at the batter box and notes that the pitcher will want to build up a good pitching rhythm by slowly driving them impatient, so he hits the first pitch.
The chapter ends with Kawabata jumping up and catches the ball in mid-air.
Originally serialized in Shuukan Shounen Magazine Issue #19, 2019.
All images are copyrighted by Terajima Yuuji / Kodansha.
Scoreboard
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 計 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 八弥王子 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 青道 | 0 |
Thoughts
Woah, there is some crazy fielding happening in this chapter. It definitely highlights both team’s second baseman. I think we may be able to finally see some development of Haruichi’s growth as a player in this match.
Phew, Furuya made it through and he did quite well. Not necessarily stellar (audience commentary aside), but it was a good start. It also seems that other coaches are picking up on Miyuki’s style of pitch leading. I’m not sure if this is going to be a pattern going forward, but Furuya is definitely more marked than Sawamura. Speaking of which, that list of top pitchers of national level, we see Sanada, Amahisa, Mei and Furuya … where’s Sawamura?! I mean, Amahisa haven’t even played at the national level yet, come on! I don’t think he is that famous yet … unless he became promiment after the spring tournament. Bah. Looks like Sawamura still fails to impress the crowd.
Moving on, it doesn’t seem to be that Hachiya-ouji’s pitcher is all that scary, granted it is still a little too early in the game to judge. But their defense definitely looks top-notch as rumoured.