Ace of Diamond: Return of the Pitcher

Chapter 41: I Will Do It! part_2

“I will do it!”

The duel resumed, and Kataoka directly replaced Chris and stood in the position of the referee. 

Chris was about to take off the protective gear, and Kataoka shook his head: “No need!”

He was just like that, without any protective gear, and stood behind the Catcher Miyuki: “Let’s start.”

‘Start what?’

This kind of Kataoka scared Miyuki’s cold sweat out of his skin. Do you know how much psychological pressure you put on the Pitcher? Originally, the advantage of the third grade is not small, but is it too much to pull the side of the frame like this?

Miyuki wanted to say something, but looking at Kataoka’s iceberg-like face, he didn’t know what to say.

Based on what he knew about his own Coach, when Kataoka did something, it was definitely not without reason.

The biggest possibility is to test Sawamura’s courage. Facing such a Kataoka, what kind of ball can Sawamura throw? It’s just strange that Sawamura has won the national championship twice. Although he is the overlord of the softball league, his psychological quality and ability to bear do not need to be tested, right?

‘Or does the Supervisor want to see Sawamura’s Pitching more clearly from the position of the referee?’

‘Partner, you have to Pitch well. The next few Pitches are likely to become an important test for whether you can take over as the Ace in the future!’

Miyuki thought and gave Sawamura a sign.

‘Make good use of the previous ball and the next ball, be more careful.’

Like Miyuki, Chris also saw Kataoka’s intentions, and he was very emotional. Sawamura, who has just entered school for less than a month, has already embarked on the road to the Ace. Of course, there are reasons like Tanpa’s poor state, but the root cause is Sawamura’s pitching, which is enough to raise eyebrows.

Come on, show off your pitching and impress the Coach.

The second ball: A Straight Fastball just below the center!

It looks exactly the same ball path as just now, but the ball path is completely different. The timing is different, the course is different, and the break is also different.

On the pitcher's mound, Sawamura nodded slightly.

At this time, there was no Kataoka in his eyes, He didn’t think as much as Chris and Miyuki did. He only had Miyuki’s gloves in his eyes and the opponent blocking him.

‘It has to be faster! Faster!!!’

The ball needs to be fast, but the action needs to be slow, and it needs to look natural and non-threatening.

‘Go, now!!!’

Like a ball thrown naturally, the small white ball is like a rocket that is constantly advancing, and in the blink of an eye, it arrives in front of Tetsuya.

Here it comes!

The momentum of the Batter all over his body, suddenly soared and hit the flying baseball.

In the position of the Catcher, Miyuki’s pupils suddenly widened, this ball, too sweet, will be swept away.

Sawamura may have paid too much attention to the power of the ball, and his control of the ball was deviated. The position of the ball was too easy to hit.

Sure enough, Tetsuya hit the ball with his swing.

“Ping!”

He swung the bat like a lightning bolt and hit the flying baseball ruthlessly.

Done!

There was some despair in Miyuki’s eyes, but the next development was beyond his expectations.

The white ball, after hitting it, landed in front of the pitcher’s mound.

Sawamura pounced like a hungry tiger and covered the rebounding baseball with his gloves.

“OUT!”

In the fourth game, with three ups and three downs, Sawamura won this round.

Both sides 2:2.

Miyuki glanced at Sawamura in surprise, not understanding how the Ball had changed direction.

In the position of the referee, Kataoka could see very clearly that Sawamura’s pitching showed the power of not losing to Tetsu’s swing just now, almost in a head-to-head situation. Coupled with the influence of the previous Breaking-ball, there is an immediate result.

But even so, the Pitch that was just thrown was amazingly fast, and it was difficult for an average pitcher to adjust and hold the ball after the pitching motion started.

And Sawamura did it!

“Very good!”

Kataoka seemed satisfied with the result.

“Who’s winning?”

When he asked this, everyone was telling the truth.

“Draw!”

“Draw?”

Kataoka seems to be very dissatisfied, how can it be leveled, someone has to lose?

“Yes, it’s Draw!”

Everyone was basically enjoying themselves, especially in front of Kataoka, each one behaved more honestly than the other, united and unanimous. When gentlemen confront each other, peace is the most usual result.

“That won’t work, another round.”

Kataoka disagreed and asked for a playoff.

“All competitions have to go to the end, and there is always only one loser and one winner. Your duel should be like this.”

This is called flaming the fire, and it’s all for the sake of it. In any case, the fifth round will continue.

“Then let’s decide the lineup.”

Sawamura was a little broken, and he had no choice but to fight the same batters five times in one match. In the experience of Sawamura’s previous life, it has never happened before. This matchup is too passive for pitchers.

“In the last round, it’s better to decide the outcome of the match.”

Kataoka took the initiative to propose.

“Yes!”

The Coach spoke, and everyone naturally had no objection. He is the Boss, he has the final say.

Tetsu, Masuko is eager to play.

Kominato, Isashiki’s eyes are shining, and even Chris is very interested.

Kataoka, wearing sunglasses, ignored them and walked to the strike zone alone.

“The last one, I will do it!”

Pitching duels, heads-up, one-on-one.

Sawamura Eijun Vs Kataoka Teshin.

Kataoka’s actions stunned everyone. They don’t understand, what it means when Kataoka stands in the batting zone at this time?

‘You’ve made it clear that you want to give people a chance to solve this and now you want to What!?’

Kataoka is a Coach. He used to be a player when he was a student. He was a very famous baseball player until he graduated from college. He even received invitations from several professional teams.

But since graduating from university to the present, Kataoka has not had a serious fight with anyone for five years.

No matter how much strength you had before, once you haven’t touched the bat for too long, your batting strength will definitely decline.

Judging from Sawamura’s pitching performance just now, isn’t he an opponent who can challenge the Superintendent head-to-head?

“Superintendent!”

“Coach!”

“Kataoka-san”

The players and Manager Ota, both of them tried to persuade.

Kataoka played in place of a third-year players, which was really uneconomical. You are saying that you are going to win, right? There is no credit. Teachers win students. Isn’t this a matter of course?

But if you lose, you will lose a lot of prestige.

Kataoka obviously didn’t care about this. After he made a suggestion, he stood in the strike zone and looked at Sawamura without blinking.

“Come on then!”

The corners of Sawamura’s mouth curled up. Since Kataoka wanted to do it himself, the young Pitcher naturally had no reason to object.

Kataoka came up to bully him, and Sawamura Eijun didn’t mind playing along.

With a plan, Eijun stepped onto the pitcher's mound and prepared to fight.

Miyuki and Chris looked at each other, and finally, Miyuki wore the catcher’s mask and stepped into the position of the catcher.

In the fifth round, Sawamura’s duel against Kataoka is about to begin, and this duel that took nearly an hour has come to an end.

…

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