A straight ball that can move by itself

"Clang!"

The white ball was hit high and flew out.

"It's cool!"

Sawamura loudly reminded his friends to be on guard.

Takeshi Ryu found a spot early, spread out his gloves, and waited for the baseball to fall.

During this time, the little friends of Akagi Middle School did almost nothing else, so they concentrated on practicing picking up fly ball.

Although the intensive training time is not long, but the results are not bad. You have picked up fly ball several times today, and so far there has not been a single mistake.

"Pop!"

"Out!"

With the batter out, Akagi Middle School completed their sixth-inning defense.

In the cowshed of Nagano Metropolitan Middle School.

The tall and sturdy team members looked at the man on the pitcher's mound with solemn expressions.

The score was 2:0, and Nagano Metropolitan Middle School was still ahead, but they had no choice but to calm down.

The opponent is very good!

They knew this before, and when they watched it live, they were more certain.

But such a team, they were evenly matched with them.

So far, Nagano Metropolitan Middle School, which is a powerful offensive player, has only hit two effective hits. Both limited hits came in the first inning, a bunt in the third, and a homer in the fourth.

Other than that, none of them hit the base.

The upper line and the middle line have been played twice, but there is still no hope of conquering Sawamura.

The most terrifying thing is that until now, they still haven't figured out how a straight ball that looks ordinary can become a high-flying ball after they hit it?

"Have you been played stupid?"

Coach Takeshi Ryu asked with a sneer.

All the players at Nagano Metropolitan Middle School turned around and looked at their coaches in confusion.

"Did the opponent really shoot the same straight ball?"

Takeshi Ryu rested on the lounge chair with his chin in his hand, and asked listlessly: "It is precisely because you are so naive that you cannot defeat Tenryuji Temple. That pitcher was right, but his pitching action, Made some minor adjustments."

"Ordinary straight balls have a fixed posture, which is to maximize the pitcher's fastballs. In a standard straight ball, the pitcher's wrists and arms are vertical, and the ball is thrown by the power of the arm swing. The pitcher is not so when he is pitching, his wrist is bent, just like a tennis serve. During the pitching process, the bending of the wrist is used to give the baseball more spin, allowing the ball to have more rotation in the process of flight. Small climbs up. That's why it looks like, with the same straight ball, you're going to fly high. Because you're not hitting the center of the ball at all, you're hitting the bottom of the baseball."

After Takeshi Ryu finished explaining, the Nagano Metropolitan Middle School contestants were at a loss.

"All in all, the pitcher named Sawamura should have two types of straights, one with a slight rise, the same as a super-fast straight. The other is an ordinary straight. Do you understand? "

Now it's much easier. The little friends nodded, indicating that they understood.

"Adding that kind of wrist pressure to throw the ball can indeed make the ball spin more during flight and achieve a small increase, but that will affect the speed of the ball? Why does his two straight balls seem to have the same speed as the other balls??"

Nagano Metropolitan Middle School was not all simple-minded, well-developed gorillas. At least their ace pitcher, Marian is not. He looked at his coach suspiciously and asked.

Takeshi Ryu nodded in satisfaction, he liked Marian's attitude very much. But when answering Marian's question, his tone was very blunt: "I'm not him, how do I know? But there are only two situations that come to mind. The first is that he deliberately adjusted the speed of his straight ball before, the purpose is to match him now. This kind of straight ball cooperates with each other. If this is the case, then this pitcher named Sawamura will probably be useless until next year. Another possibility is that this pitcher has a special talent and soft body joints. He can stretch himself freely. Wrist and arm without affecting pitching and control. If so, then we may have to add a strong competitor in the future."

Strong competitor!

This sentence stabbed Marian's self-esteem.

"A baseball game, as long as you don't drop points, you can't lose! I won't let them hit my ball."

So far, Nagano Metropolitan Middle School has only two hits, but Akagi has not even a single hit. Whether it was the powerful Aoi Ren, or the veteran pitcher Sawamura, none of them were able to conquer the defense of Nagano Metropolitan Middle School.

It's not just the pitcher's problem, it's also the defense of Nagano Metropolis!

Sawamura hit the ball twice, but was perfectly guarded by the fielder. The same is true for Ren. The ball he hit was slaughtered by Ogawa.

Strictly speaking, they didn't lose to the pitcher, although Marian's pitching was really strong.

They lost to the Nagano Metropolitan Middle School team.

Such a perfect defense is definitely not something that can be accomplished overnight. Nagano Metropolitan players can do this, and there must be hard work and sweat behind it that others can't see.

In the second half of the sixth inning, Akagi Middle School attacked.

"nice pitch!"

"nice pitch!"

"nice pitch!"

"strike out!"

"strike out!!"

"strike out!!!"

Nine balls, three strikeouts Marian showed unparalleled strong pitching. The game is coming to an end, and his performance like this hardly leaves any hope for the players of Akagi Middle School.

The game ushered in the last round.

In the first half of the seventh inning, Nagano Metropolitan Middle School attacked.

This time, their starter is their third.

"Clang!"

It was the same bunt as in the first game, but this time Yamaguchi picked up the ball, but his speed of picking up the ball and passing the ball was too slow. And Nagano Metropolitan's third bunt is superb and fast.

He was a full half a second faster than the return pass and stepped on the base bag.

"Safe!"

No one is out, there is someone at first base!

In the cowshed of Nagano Metropolitan Middle School.

Coach Takeshi contemptuously looked at Akagi's little friend who was struggling on the court.

Because they were affected by the pitcher's specious straight ball, they all ignored it. Akagi is actually a bad team, and they have many loopholes.

For example, although their high fly balls are handled well, they are not at all good at grounding.

You can kill them with bunts.

"Fourth, catcher, Saburo Tsuchihara."

When there was someone on the first base, it was Saburo Tsuchihara's turn.

This situation is even more dangerous than in the first game.

Aoi Ren and Sawamura Eijun's faces were not relaxed, so they had to be more careful in the next game.

"Whoosh!"

Sawamura threw the ball, and the baseball shot at Ren's glove like a laser beam.

There was a fierce light in Saburo Tsuchihara's eyes, and the bat in his hand roared out.