Summary

The chapter opens with a view of Hachiya-ouji’s stands cheering for their team, some openly tearing up.

It’s the bottom of the 7th, with Kurose, the 4th batter at-bat. The first pitch was a slider that he swung at. However, the second pitch was a in-high bait-ball that he did not swing at it. Kurose psyches himself that he can see the pitches, and not to aim at the balls, but also to swing hard at the right moment. Meanwhile, on first base, Kawabata wills Miyuki to call for breaking balls because he believes that even Miyuki must have let balls get past him sometime.

As Furuya gets ready for the next pitch, Kurose thinks to himself that he won’t let all the hard work they’ve done be wasted. Similarly, Kawabata also tells himself that there is still a chance for them to score. As Furuya’s pitch roars toward Miyuki, Kurose manages to connect and sends a grounder … straight into Kuramochi’s glove. Kuromachi throws it to Haruichi on second before Kawabata makes it there, and then Haruichi throws it to first, taking Kurose out. It’s a 6-4-3 double play, and with that, crushes Hachiya-ouji’s closest chance to prolong the game. Kawabata remains lying on the ground, looking up in disbelief. Meanwhile, Sawamura and the first years are loudly cheering for the ones on the ground who still remained focused in the game.

Kawabata finally gets up, his countenance visibly improved, putting a smile on his face as he returns to the dugout. The inning eventually ends with a fly to the left field, caught by Asou. Seidou wins with the game called at the 7th innings, with a score of 8-0.

The scene switches to outside the stadium. Hachiya-ouji players are in tears with Kawabata going around consoling everyone with a smile. Then his mom and sister walks up to him. Kawabata’s mom tells him that “You’ve worked hard for the past two years, Masunori”. He smiles in return, and bows to her saying, “Thank you making my bento every day, doing my uniform laundry, and the past two and half years worth of support.”. His coach looks on from the side, while Kawabata’s mom shakes her head in reply. Kawabata, however, remained bowed as tears began to flow and he cries unabashedly. In his mind, he apologizes to his father that he was unable to bring the two of them (his mom and sister) to Koshien.

On Seidou’s side, the coaches and Furuya are dealing with post-game interviews and greetings. Sawamura watches Furuya, smiling in determination with Miyuki watching him. It looks like Furuya’s performance has lit something in Sawamura.

Originally serialized in Shuukan Shounen Magazine Issue #26, 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 0 0
青道 0 0 1 0 5 2 X 8

Thoughts

In the end, it was a clear victory for Seidou. But I’m glad the author managed to illustrate that Hachiya-ouji really gave their everything in this match. Despite the chapter being the climax of this match, due to the speed of how things unfolded, I have to admit there was a slight sense of disappointment on my part. But in the same vein, I’m glad the author did not choose to drag things out but resolved things in a quick and clean way.

Overall, Furuya performed a stellar job and looks like he has returned in top form. Kawabata, despite putting everything he had, could not fulfill his dream. His teammates, especially Kurose, also tried their best and never gave up until the end, even managed to connect with Furuya’s pitch (compared to previous innings where they couldn’t even make contact) even if it did issue in a double play. I think Hachiya-ouji really gave all they could for this game, and it also illustrated that Seidou’s batters have powered up and now living up to their name as a powerhouse school!

I was a little worried the author might take next week off, but he seems to still be going at it. The preview text does not mention anything about Sankou x Yakushi’s match so I think there will be a post-match interim for Seidou before the focus is switched to the game.