<21> Continuing Practice

Chapter 21: Continuing Practice

Finally, evening arrived. Since summer was approaching, the days were getting longer, and it wouldn't get dark until around 6 or 7 p.m. However, Sendo wouldn't let them practice that late.

"Alright, that's it for today!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, the group collapsed onto the ground. Sawamura was already lying nearby with an exhausted expression.

"Hey!" Sendo let out a light snort, the corners of his mouth lifting into a mischievous smirk.

"In five minutes, you're all running back! Wakana, you ride your bike and keep an eye on them! And tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m., meet on the main road to run to school, then continue running here until class starts. No slacking! You need to run at least 10 kilometers every morning. Oh, and remember to practice your batting when you get home."

"Well then, great work today. I'm heading out first."

"You jerk!" Sawamura shot up and yelled the moment he heard Sendo was leaving.

"What's the problem? I never said I was going to train with you guys. I'm just your coach. Plus, I've got plenty to do. So, Wakana, I'll leave tomorrow's morning practice in your hands. Now then, sa-yo-na-ra!" He left without looking back.

"Didn't Sen-chan say not to swing the bat for hitting practice?" Takeda asked.

"But he never said we couldn't practice at all. He probably thinks our hitting won't help the team right now, meaning the ban will be lifted once we improve to his satisfaction. What Sen-chan meant is that, for the time being, he won't personally train us in batting. His words just now were a hint for us to work on it ourselves. Let's go for it! Baseball is a nine-man sport after all," Ohno quickly replied.

"Oh!!!"

"Huh? Oh!!!"

The last shout came from Sawamura, whose delayed reaction showed that he hadn't really been paying attention to his teammates' conversation. He just followed along because everyone else was shouting.

"Hahahaha!" His teammates couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Hahahaha!" Sawamura, clueless as to why, joined in the laughter. But in that moment, a good portion of the day's fatigue melted away.

Meanwhile, Sendo was mentally calculating a few things.

"I'm home!"

"Welcome back! How was the first day of practice?"

"Worse than I expected. The guys I practiced with on my first day with the Wildcats were way better. But I did notice a few things I hadn't thought of before. I'm heading to my room now, Grandpa!"

With that, Sendo headed upstairs.

That night, he didn't turn down his childhood friend's request for tutoring. As he helped with studying, his thoughts wandered back to the problems facing the baseball team.

Although Sendo wasn't great at explaining specific questions, he was skilled at breaking down concepts.

Fumino only needed to learn these ideas, which helped her build a solid foundation.

The two made a good pair.

...

The next day, practice resumed from where they had left off.

"Again?"

"That's right. Your defense is still far from where it needs to be. There won't be such easy balls during a real game. Oh, wait, I misspoke. If you survive the early rounds, there definitely won't be any more softballs like that." Sendo quickly corrected himself, remembering the scene of a recent low-level match.

"Also, I noticed your catching stances are all wrong. And your gloves—don't use your palms to catch the ball…"

Before starting, Sendo went over the basic techniques he'd thought of and researched to address their weaknesses, then practice began.

At first, the players struggled, still not used to thinking about their catching positions, leading to repeated mistakes.

But Sendo wasn't going to let them off easily.

If their positions were wrong, they had to do it over.

The goal was to make their bodies remember, turning the right stance and catching position into instinct. To be honest, Sendo wasn't perfect at this himself.

However, compared to the others, Ohno and Kondou—the team's former 1-2 batting combination—stood out.

After adjusting their stances, within just an hour, their catching skills had improved significantly. The balls Sendo hit toward them were fast—relatively speaking, of course.

"Ohno! You're up to bat!"

"Huh?"

"I need to check on that idiot's progress. As for you and Kondou, I haven't figured out how to enhance your training yet. I'll think it over tonight."

"Oh, okay!"

"Takeda, lend me your catcher's mitt, and you go join the others in catching practice." He tossed Sawamura's glove to him.

"Oh!"

With that, Sendo casually picked up his mitt with one hand and walked toward Sawamura, who was already resting.

"Get up, Eijun!"

"What do you want?" Sawamura asked warily, eyeing Sendo.

"Throw a few pitches! I need to check."

"Oh!" Sawamura obediently stood up.

"Alright, let's get started!"

Sawamura lifted his leg and swung his arm.

Pop!

Sendo's eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Idiot! I told you to pitch, not play catch! Throw it with everything you've got!"

"But!"

"But what?"

"But everyone says…"

"Oh, that? Forget about what they say. Just throw with all your strength."

This time, Sawamura's pitching motion was much more fluid.

Thanks to the complete set of techniques Sendo had taught him a few years ago to increase his pitch speed, although it wasn't particularly fast, his speed was somewhere between 125 and 130 km/h.

It's important to note that Sawamura's top pitch speed in his second year of high school was only 138 km/h, and as a first-year, his current speed was about the same. Of course, Sendo wasn't aware of this.

Pop!

Sendo frowned again.

"Hey, I'm pitching with all my strength!" Sawamura immediately shouted when he saw Sendo frown, wanting to make it clear that he was following instructions and wasn't at fault.

"Was that pitch… a strike?" After a long pause, Sendo finally asked, his brows still furrowed.

"How the heck would I know? You're the catcher!" Sawamura, standing more than 15 meters away, couldn't possibly see clearly and shouted back.

"I'm really bad at this!" Sendo silently admitted to himself.

He certainly wasn't going to confess his shortcoming.

During games, he judged balls and strikes by using the field markings and the batter's knees as reference points. Here, without any of those markers, his weakness as a hitter was all too obvious.

"At least he's an idiot," Sendo thought, reassuring himself once again.

"Well, whatever, let's skip this for now. Keep pitching!" Sendo quickly changed the subject.

"Okay!" The oblivious Sawamura continued to pitch without questioning anything.

Pop!

Pop!

Pop!

Pop!

Pop!

Five consecutive pitches, all right down the middle, but each one seemed to veer off slightly in different directions, almost like breaking balls.

"A ball right down the middle can't drift so much that it becomes a bad pitch, right? Probably! Maybe! Yeah, let's go with that," Sendo slowly convinced himself.

However, this made him more determined to find a hitter among his teammates in the next month or two to test out Sawamura's pitches in a real setting.

"Today, let's just let him pitch to his heart's content," Sendo thought, then called out.

"Eijun, keep throwing as much as you want! I'll keep track of your rest time and pitch count, and we'll skip the running for today!"

By rest time and pitch count, Sendo meant he would structure Sawamura's breaks based on the number of pitches per inning and typical in-game situations. After all, for a team like theirs, the pitcher's stamina was critical.

"Oh!!!"

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