Summary

The chapter opens at Seidou’s dorms where the regular players have some free time before having to stop practice at 4pm in preparation for tomorrow’s game. Asou receives a message from Seki who is at Hachiouji stadium to watch the Sankou vs Yakushi match. We find out that Yakushi is batting first and Sankou is starting with their ace pitcher, Amahisa. Yakushi’s starting pitcher is Tomobe, while Sanada batting 3rd and playing left field. And Raichi is batting second! Hearing this, Miyuki comments that Yakushi is up to something.

At the stadium, we see Amahisa on the mount and Akiba in the batter box. Meanwhile, Sankou’s team manager looks grim as he stares at the lineup list:

  • 1: Akiba (catcher)
  • 2: Raichi (third)
  • 3: Sanada (left)
  • 4: Mishima (first)
  • 5: Tomobe (pitcher)
  • 6: Hirahata (right)
  • 7: Abe (center)
  • 8: Yonehara (shortstop)
  • 9: Masuda (second)

Raichi is waiting for his turn and is positively burning with anticipation. Amahisa watches him from the corner of his eye and says to himself, “Don’t be so eager, you monkey batter.” Takashima comments that Yakushi moved Raichi up in the batting order in order to create more opportunities to score off Amahisa since it is difficult to get many runs from him. Nabe agrees with her. With Sanada as 3rd batter who is good at challenging the pitcher, Mishima as 4th batter can be persistent, and Tomobe as 5th batter, this order is top-heavy offensive.

Back at the diamond, Sankou’s catcher, Takami, reminds Amahisa that while he should watch out for Raichi, he should not let his guard down either with Akiba who is batting first. For starters, he needs to calmly retire this batter. Amahisa tells him that he knows that and that he is not thinking about Raichi right now. He follows up with three consecutive balls which Akiba does not swing for as the battery would have hoped. However, his fourth pitch connects and flies to center field. Akiba makes it to first base.

Yakushi erupts with cheers, while Amahisa apologizes and admits to Takami that it’s really hard to ignore Raichi’s presence. Akiba notes that Amahisa was definitely distracted, while Sanada comments to himself that Amahisa is known for capricious starts. Raichi finally steps up to the batter box and the stadium erupts with calls of encouragment. Sankou fielders just smile in response to Amahisa’s actions - they are more than familiar with his pitching habit so they continue to believe in their ace.

Amahisa starts to rear up to pitch an inside slider towards Raichi’s knee - the strikeout pitch that took out Raichi back in the fall tournament. As he pitches, he thinks to himself that as a “greeting” pitch, he wants to see if Raichi is still the same as he was then, or perhaps he has improved and is growing. Raichi is completely hyped and waiting for the pitch to come. As it flies towards him, he pictures the image of Amahisa that he has been practicing in his mind with, and connects with the pitch. It flies straight to the right fence.

The chapter ends with both Akiba and Raichi running to the next base, and Raichi shouts “It’s as I’d imagined!”.

Originally serialized in Shuukan Shounen Magazine Issue #30, 2019.
All images are copyrighted by Terajima Yuuji / Kodansha.

Scoreboard

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 計
薬師 0
市大三 0

Thoughts

Amahisa… you’ve got to stop taunting Raichi with those “greeting” pitches. Haven’t you learned your lesson from the last match?

But I’m glad that the author is going for drama here because unlike Seidou’s games where the build up is slow, I’m liking how this match is proceeding so far.