Summary
It’s the top of the 5th inning with Furuya’s pitching, and one of his fastballs hits 155km/h on the speed gun - his fastest pitch clocked so far. The batter strikes out, making it Furuya’s 10th strikeout for today’s match. The audience exclaims that his speed even surpassed his record speed during the Senbatsu, but someone else added that Furuya’s pitches also have something more than just speed.
Miyuki notes to himself that Furuya’s pitches have a good spin since he’s not straining at all. The audience shouts that the “monster” has returned, and if he keeps this up, they may just win the West Tokyo regionals! Watching Furuya, Sawamura says that “that’s how [things/he/it] should be”. He looks positively excited to see Furuya doing so well. Meanwhile, Furuya is thinking how he still has four innings to go…
Okumura asks if Sawamura wants to start warming up, as he is now available. Kawakami tells Sawamura to go ahead. Yui looks a little frustrated as he watches the two leave for the bullpen.
It’s now the bottom of the 5th, with one out. Kuramochi held out for four balls, and gets on base. He immediately steals the next base and Hachi-ouji’s battery was unable to stop him. The audience comments that he’s the last person you want on base. Hachiya-ouji has done a good job keeping Seidou to one point so far, but since the first inning, Seidou has been constantly hitting off him, so the pitcher’s nerves is probably highly strung right now.
Haruichi gets ready for the next pitch, when the pitcher suddenly turns around and attempts a pick-off at second base. Kuramochi barely makes it back safely, and notes that the pitcher used a new feint this time. Hachiya-ouji wants Kuramochi to stay on second base and they started shifting to a close-in defense, with the first closer to the line, the second out deep, and defense is shifted to the right. Hachiya-ouji’s battery is determined to keep the pitches low to force grounders and trust their fielders for the rest.
In the dugout, Ochiai notes while Furuya seems to be doing well today, the score is still too close for comfort and they really need to score soon. The audience wonders if Haruichi will attempt a bunt so that he is able to connect to the cleanups. Though someone noted that as a 2nd batter, he never seems to bunt much.
Here we see a flashback to a previous conversation between Kataoka and Haruichi. Kataoka tells him that he has a different expectation from him compared to Ryousuke, who considered the game situation and acted as the ’lubricating oil’ among Seidou’s batters so that he could to create opportunities by getting on the base, and connect to the other batters.
However, compared to Ryousuke who was a left handed batter, Haruichi is just an average hitter to the right. So he does not expect for Haruichi to do the same thing as Ryousuke did. Kataoka then continues:
“In general, I would not give you a bunt signal.
Because what I expect from the both of you as the first and second batters is not only to create opportunities, but also to score runs.
Lots of major leagues put a strong batter with a high on-base percentage and high long hit percentage as their 2nd batter.
So with that wooden bat of yours,
become Seidou’s “booster” (accelerator).”
With that, Haruichi connects with the pitch, and sends the ball over Kawabata’s head, who was unable to catch it. The chapter ends with Kuramochi and Haruichi running for the next base.
Originally serialized in Shuukan Shounen Magazine Issue #23, 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 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 青道 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Thoughts
The scene where Sawamura looks really excited while watching Furuya’s performance, it’s like he’s saying “the rivalry is still on!”.
There seems to be a slim chance that Sawamura may be able to pitch. Kataoka may be waiting for Furuya to let someone on base before switching him out. I think Furuya’s doing a little too well in this game and he could be switched out so that he can pitch in the next game.
When the match began, and there was talk about how strong Hachiya-ouji’s defense was, especially with Kuwabata around, I figured that the plan may be to highlight Kuramochi & Haruichi as a defense combo. Instead, we get to see them a powerful combo is capable of driving in runs and that’s really awesome in my opinion!
I’m enjoying this match so far so I can’t wait to see what happens next!