Chapter 4: Pinch Hitting as the Lead Batter

The coach of Shiron Chugaku seemed to attach great importance to this practice match. He personally took charge and many students gathered around to watch.

"Hello, hello, thank you for accepting our request for a practice match."

The coach of Shiron Chugaku, who appeared to be in his fifties, had a dignified appearance. After seeing Sano, the young ones from Akagi felt somewhat intimidated.

The coach of Shiron Chugaku was also polite, "It's okay, it's okay. After all, we have more club members, and our newly established second team has never had a practice match before. We really need opponents."

"What, second team?"

Akagi's buddies were not aware of this news beforehand.

Though they were not much better than Shiron Chugaku's second team themselves, even in terms of skills, it didn't mean they couldn't look down on the opponent.

After all, they were the first team of Akagi. How could they compare themselves to Shiron Chugaku's second team?

Sawamura hadn't anticipated this situation. However, he admired his buddies' fearless spirit as beginners. Regardless of their strength, they refused to be intimidated.

Though their arrogance might seem unreasonable, athletes needed to possess such a spirit. Otherwise, they would lose their confidence before even facing strong opponents.

Such athletes couldn't achieve good results.

"Let them be, they are still a second team. Most of them are from the same grade as us. Having opponents with similar strength is valuable for comparison."

While he admired them, the match still needed to be played.

Sawamura didn't really care about the strength of the opponents.

His main goal in organizing the practice match was to showcase the charm and atmosphere of baseball to his buddies, to make them fall in love with baseball through the match.

Strong opponents would be great as they could serve as role models for his buddies.

Weak opponents wouldn't be a problem either; an evenly matched game could also spark their interest.

Once he had figured this out, Sawamura actively encouraged his buddies from Akagi to participate.

Only when the captain spoke did the Akagi buddies settle down and start accepting the match.

The match began with Akagi Middle School as the first to bat, and catcher Yamaguchi Ken was the lead batter.

Wait, this can't be a joke, right?

When the players from Shiron Chugaku saw Yamaguchi Ken walking up to the batter's box with a bat in hand, their first reaction was disbelief.

They couldn't accept that their practice match opponents would do such a thing.

"Yamaguchi, you idiot. You're holding the bat upside down!"

Sawamura blushed with embarrassment.

This was too humiliating, a situation he had never anticipated.

After witnessing the defensive practices of Shiron's outfielders, Akagi's buddies were dumbfounded.

'The way they caught and threw the ball, their reactions, and the speed of their throws left a deep impression on them.

In their impression, Shiron didn't seem like a strong team. But once they stepped onto the field, they became so powerful?

Facing the professional movements and coordination of the Shiron players, the arrogance of Akagi's buddies vanished.

Before stepping up to bat, they were even a bit at a loss. Not only Yamaguchi Ken, but several other kids were also not doing well.

Their faces changed, and their bodies trembled slightly.

How could they play like this?

For a moment, Sawamura really wanted to give up. Perhaps a practice match was too early for his buddies at Akagi.

No, he couldn't give up like this.

The thought had just crossed his mind when Sawamura drove it out of his mind.

He couldn't give up; if the first practice match went like this, his buddies' enthusiasm would be severely dampened.

He had to give them confidence.

"Let me switch in, I'll take the lead batter position."

Sawamura replaced Yamaguchi and became the team's lead batter.

In a regular match, this would never be allowed. But in a practice match, everyone was just good neighbors. The coach and players of Shiron didn't say anything about it.

For them, it was also their first practice match. After all, their second team had just been established not long ago.

"Please go easy on me!"

The umpire for the match was Shiron's coach. When Sawamura saluted him, the coach couldn't help but be surprised.

He could see what kind of team Akagi was.

Rather than calling them a team, it was more appropriate to call them an interest group. Akagi's buddies clearly weren't mentally prepared for the match.

After witnessing the embarrassing display of their teammates, Sawamura walked up to the batter's box and still maintained his composure.

He even calmly greeted the coach.

It was truly unbelievable!

The coach of Shiron Chugaku, who hadn't expected much from this practice match, nodded at Sawamura.

He decided to wait and see, to observe a little more.

"Here I come!"

As he stepped into the batter's box, Sawamura imitated Ichiro and gave a beautiful home run preview.

"Oh my god, this guy is too arrogant. Was that a home run preview?"

"And it's Ichiro's signature move."

"Even if he wants to show off, does he have to do it this way?"

Shiron's players were shocked, or more accurately, they were angry.

Did Akagi Middle School think too highly of themselves?

The pitcher for Shiron was a first-year student named Mikki who had just entered the school.

He used to be a substitute pitcher for a youth team. After entering middle school, he stopped attending youth baseball practice.

Now, he was the starting pitcher for Shiron's second team.

Although he was just a second-team pitcher and a first-year student, the coach of Shiron held him in high regard.

The coach even saw him as Shiron's savior.

If he wasn't a first-year student, and if his body were stronger, the coach might have directly promoted him to the ace position.

This practice match was specially arranged by the coach for him.

Facing the coach's expectations, Mikki was flattered and determined to perform well to meet the coach's expectations.

However, Shiron's opponent, Akagi, wasn't giving him enough motivation.

The only decent player on their team was probably their pitcher.

Sawamura Eijun!

Mikki was certain he hadn't heard this name during his time in youth baseball, nor had he ever seen this person.

Yet, his batting stance was very standard. Besides the home run preview he learned from Ichiro, Sawamura's entire batting stance was one of the most standard ones.

Mikki couldn't take it lightly.

Before pitching, he warned himself silently.

"Swish!"

Mikki pitched, and the Akagi's buddies were taken aback.

This pitcher from Shiron Chugaku was so slow!

Of course, it wasn't that Mikki's pitch speed was actually slow; for a first-year student in middle school, a pitch speed of around 101 km/h was already pretty good.

However, compared to the fast pitches they had seen during practice with Sawamura, it seemed much slower.

"Ha!"

Facing a 101 km/h fastball, Sawamura let out a loud shout and swung his bat, making the first swing

of his middle school baseball career.

...

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