Result of Improved Grip

5 am, Dormitory,

Sawamura woke up at alarm sound, he changed his clothes and wear his running shoes then went towards training field. There was one person running in the field. sawamura went near the field to see the person, Kojima was running at a very high pace. Sweat beads were falling from his forehead. His T-shirt stuck with his body.

Kojima: hey, Sawamura how you doing?

Sawamura: I am fine, You pitched yesterday why are you running like there is no tomorrow?

Kojima: I only pitched for two innings and to become better I have to train like there is no tomorrow and my goal is not to be a relief pitcher I want to go to majors in america. There Pitchers like me are many, I want to make my mark.

Sawamura: whoa, you really have planned your goal. Looks like I have to up my training too. I have lot of work to do as my pitching speed is Slow.

Kojima: Hey speed can not be increased overnight. at first my fastball speed was even slower than yours, I gradually trained for three years for my current speed. Just don't rush Gradually increase your speed and others aspect. Just follow Chris senpai's, You will become good pitcher in no time.

Sawamura: Thanks.

Kojima: OK, Bye I am gonna train.

Sawamura: Bye.

*******************************

8 am

"1st years 3 bowls of rice not even one grain less, eat it up"

" oi Furuya don't sleep during breakfast, you need energy, you lack stamina"

" Kojima can you eat that much, Matsuko senpai eats 5 bowls of rice"

Kojima: ah, yes I usually eat 4 bowls of rice, but today I ran a little extra, so I am hungry.

1st years:

"Whoa"

"What a beast"

"Can you eat even 3 bowls"

"Even 1 bowl is taking my all to eat"

************************

Kojima: Miyuki senpai are you free today in bullpen?

Miyuki: Yes, Wanna throw some balls?

Kojima: Yes, I wanna try some thing on my Pitches.

Miyuki: OK, after fielding practice.

Kojima: OK.

Kojima: OK, first I wanna throw vertical slider with improved Grip.

Miyuki: What is improved grip?

Kojima: I trained to increase my finger and clamping strength since last year, I wanna try increased grip to the pitches.

Miyuki: OK.

Kojima stepped to pitch and took stance and used his improved grip. The ball goes straight and broke suddenly at plate and miyuki failed to catch the pitch for the first time in his life.

Miyuki: That's good slider, try different pitches and see any difference.

Kojima used different pitches and almost all the pitches broke way more than his original pitch.

His splitter improved by leaps and bounds. One can not differentiate between fastball and splitter till ball reached plate. It broke suddenly in depth.

His fastball's speed and power increased. It's power increased so much that ball can easily shatter wooden bat if it doesn't contact with the core of bat.

The experiment for improving pitches was highly successful.

<First year Kojima is to gather at the bench as soon as possible>