Chapter 266: The Crucial Third Round
"Third pitch!"
"Ah! Ugh!"
Ping!
"He hit the changeup!!!"
"Yoshi! Fly far, damn it!!"
But the ball did not fly far at all—Carlos casually jogged a few steps and caught it with ease.
"Damn it! You've gotta be kidding me!"
Sawamura made the exact same frustrated face as Isashiki.
While the shaggy mutt (Isashiki) was regretting a ball he absolutely shouldn't be regretting, Narumiya started kicking the dirt.
"Hoh? He didn't explode even after giving up an inside-the-park home run, but now he blows up just because someone touched his changeup? So confident, huh? That kind of pitch!"
But even as he mocked him, Sawamura had to admit: "As expected of last year's ace… he adjusted immediately."
Just a single look was enough for Ozawa in the stands to understand Narumiya's mood completely.
She only had to recall his own past a few years ago—when Sendo crushed her, she had kicked the mound way harder than Narumiya just did.
....
"That was close! Just a little higher and that ball would've been crushed!" Harada thought, finally deciding: We can't just throw changeups freely anymore.
"But at least… this should've planted enough awareness of the changeup. Now comes the real test… Can we suppress the next two guys without it?"
....
"Batting fourth, First Baseman—Yuki!"
Now in the third cycle through the lineup, Harada couldn't rely on changeups anymore—and he was well aware he couldn't strike out Yuki for the third straight time.
Truthfully, he was incredibly relieved that the previous inning ended with Kominato's out.
If Isashiki had been up instead…
Then this inning would've started with Yuki as the leadoff.
That would have been a nightmare.
Because after Yuki… Sendo would come up with no outs.
If that happened?
They'd have to guard against a drag bunt, then guard against Sendo's steal, then guard against a sac fly, then guard against a hit.
No matter how they defended it…
Every option was poison.
But since they already got one out, Harada could breathe.
Against the fourth and fifth batters, try to take the outs however you can.
If they reach base, that's just fate.
One out changes everything—a world of difference.
....
"Ping!"
"Foul!!"
This was already the fifth pitch Yuki had fouled off.
"Count is 2–2!"
"Ping!"
"Foul!"
He kept hanging in there—longer the at-bat went, the worse it got for Narumiya.
Because long at-bats favor strong hitters—and both Yuki and Sendo are elite.
The more pitches they see, the more they adapt.
And the more Narumiya's stamina gets drained.
A triple loss.
....
"Pop!"
"Ball!!"
"Full count!!!"
Harada exhaled slowly… then gave the final sign.
Narumiya nodded, serious again.
"Whoosh!"
Ping!
"He got it!! Outside corner… then inside corner… perfect timing!! That ball is flying deep! Will it go over? It's high… but not high enough! Carlos is sprinting back—might be a catch, might hit the wall, might be a home run!!"
But Narumiya's fastball still had weight, so the ball didn't carry as fast as it looked.
At the wall—Carlos leapt, one foot planting against the lower fence—
"PAH!!"
He caught it.
....
The crowd gasped.
The reporters stood up.
And Sendo…
Sendo wasn't surprised at all.
"I've seen this before…" he muttered.
"In my previous life too…
Same cycle through the lineup… same batter… same catch… This really is fate's self-correction, huh?"
Carlos simply exhaled in relief.
"No… if it were that monster (Sendo), he'd have reached earlier and caught it without even jumping.
This was pure luck. I was barely there in time…"
He refused to get arrogant.
.....
The pressure shifted.
Yuki walking back, shaken.
The crowd buzzing.
And analysts immediately began predicting what this meant:
If Sendo doesn't deliver again like the first inning…
The momentum will shift to Inashiro.
Seidou's pitching staff is fragile.
Inashiro only needs one opening for an explosion…
Only one man didn't feel that pressure.
....
"Batting fifth… Center Fielder—Sendo!!!"
The entire stadium trembled.
Somewhere, someone whispered:
"No one handles pressure like he does…But this time… it really may be too much…"
But Sendo stood up, smiling.
"This is the fun part."
Because for Sendo… this wasn't pressure.
This was exactly what he lived for.
"Baseball is a sport where even a small difference can be overturned in an instant! So—show me your true strength…Narumiya… Mei!!!"
But the blazing determination in Sendo's eyes—
Narumiya completely misread it.
"Che! Don't look at me with those smug eyes! Don't think hitting two balls means you're above me!
Fine then—We've racked up a LOT of debts between us. From now until this game ends— I'll settle every single one!!"
Sendo's pure fighting spirit was mistaken for provocation.
Given everything that happened, and the conversation three days ago…
There was no way Narumiya could imagine that Sendo was actually humble and self-aware.
....
"Hit it out, damn you!!!"
"Watch the ball carefully!!"
The seniors cheered loudly—they also understood how crucial this at-bat was.
"Sendo!!!"
Fumino held her fists tightly in front of her chest.
"You're not someone who breaks under pressure… right?"
—Ozawa silently prayed.
"You talk big, brat…So hit it out for real!!"
—Azuma growled, refusing to imagine the scenario where Sendo struck out.
....
"Hah… come!"
"Let's settle this!" ×2
At that moment–Sendo and Narumiya's spirits were perfectly aligned.
....
"WHOOSH!"
"PING!"
"Foul!"
"First pitch—slider! Sendo got a piece of it, foul!"
"Arghh!! He swung at that?! That was obviously a bad pitch!! Why can't that guy tell?!"
—Ota grabbed his head in frustration.
"It's not that he can't tell…It's that when he's batting, he trusts his bat… More than he trusts the umpire.
…Probably."
Chris wasn't fully confident in his own explanation.
"What I care about is—was that pitch just now because he's losing his cool? If Narumiya really is shaken…Then the only chance to truly break him—
is THIS inning. Sendo…"
Chris focused intensely on the two going into their second showdown.
....
"WHOOSH!"
"Was that a misfire?"
"POP!"
"Ball!!"
"Second pitch is way off the zone! A wild inside pitch! Sendo dodges cleanly!"
Even though the ball didn't come that close, Sendo dodged out of caution.
"Even though I got a ball count out of it…this pitch makes predicting their next move much harder.
A wild ball gives zero intel."
Sendo glanced toward Harada.
"If that wasn't a misfire… where was he aiming?
Same with Tanba earlier—an outside-ball turns into a center-fastball and BOOM, gone! Why do I never get that kind of good luck?! Did I use up all my fortune in the first at-bat…? This might actually be bad…"
Even today, with his adrenaline high, Sendo still couldn't fully cure his chronic habit—spacing out at critical moments.
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