"Block it!" One of the Akikawa players yelled urgently.
The Akikawa fielder saw Takigawa hit the ball without hesitation.
Down by two, the Akikawa players knew they couldn't let Seidō establish a scoring lead.
A team like Seidō, with all those strong hitters, would be difficult to stop once they gained momentum.
Their lead would just keep growing.
The Akikawa fielder dove with reckless abandon, not even thinking about the impact. All he wanted was to stop that ball.
You had to give him credit, he really tried, but the ball was still a good ten centimeters out of reach.
He could only watch it fly past.
"It's through!!" someone exclaimed triumphantly.
Cheers went up from the Seidō dugout.
They knew how important it was to get that first hit.
Takigawa, who'd hit the ball, just tossed his bat aside and took off for first.
"Safe!"
No outs, runner on first.
In the dugout, Miyuki Kazuya saw his rival do so well.
He wasn't jealous or anything; he was actually impressed.
"That's how it's done," he muttered with a hint of admiration.
He remembered the first time they met, he got a real lesson from this senior.
Takigawa wasn't just good as a catcher; he was good at everything.
Whether it was hitting or reading the game, he was top-notch.
Miyuki could only prove how good he was by beating a rival like that.
The seventh batter from Seidō stepped up to the plate.
Following the plan, he laid down a sacrifice bunt right away..
Thwack!
"Out!"
Even though the batter was out, Takigawa, who worked well with him, had already made it to second base.
Now it was one out, runner on second.
Back in the Akikawa dugout, the players were getting a bad feeling about this.
It was all starting to feel a little too familiar, and a chill ran down their spines.
"They're already up by two runs, why are they still doing this?" one player questioned with growing unease.
"Aren't they supposed to be one of the best teams in the country? Why can't they just play us straight?" another demanded in frustration.
They'd figured out what Seidō was trying to do.
Seidō wanted to use the same strategy to slowly wear down their Ace.
The assistant coach of Akikawa thoughtfully glanced at Kataoka.
He suddenly got a weird feeling.
It seemed like Kataoka was more like someone who'd retired from a pro team than he was.
Kataoka's offensive strategy was practically the same as what you'd see in the pros.
How could the Akikawa players possibly stop something like that?
Right then, the Akikawa assistant coach was just glad that the batter coming up was from the bottom of Seidō's lineup.
Those guys usually aren't the strongest hitters, like their eighth batter.
"Eighth batter, number twenty, outfielder, Yamamoto Takumi."
Seeing him step up to the plate, everyone in Akikawa secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The guy was just a first-year.
They knew that Kataoka must have seen something special in him to put him in, but still, he was just a first-year kid.
And he didn't even look that intimidating.
They didn't think a guy like that could hit You Shunshin's pitch.
Just as Akikawa's morale was soaring, ready to get the first out of the inning, Kataoka in the Seidō dugout suddenly realized what he'd been worried about.
He'd just wanted Takumi to get a feel for the game, since he'd never played in a real match before.
Not just high school, but he hadn't even played in a real junior high game.
He was thinking that if the team ran into trouble later and needed him to pitch, he'd need to know what it felt like to be out there.
If he was used to the atmosphere, he wouldn't get nervous on the mound and mess things up in a tight spot.
You had to say, Kataoka had thought everything through.
But he'd missed one thing: Takumi was a completely different person during games than he was in practice.
On the field, he seemed to have a spotlight on him, naturally drawing everyone's attention.
Just like right now.
The other team's players thought they could mess with the rookie a little.
But Kataoka had a feeling about this.
He felt that Akikawa's Ace's next pitch would definitely be sent far away!
Takumi was about to make a name for himself with their two biggest rivals.
Right as Kataoka was thinking that, the at-bat started.
Akikawa's Ace, Shunshin, wanted to try and scare Takumi a bit.
It's a pretty common thing for pitchers to do against rookies.
Whoosh!
The pitch came in, right on the inside corner, looked like it was almost out of the zone.
Seemed like it was gonna hit Takumi's knee.
"That's low!" someone in the Seidō dugout shouted in protest.
The Seidō players definitely saw that as a cheap shot.
When they got up to bat, they were gonna make sure their junior got some payback.
But just as they were thinking that, Takumi, standing in the batter's box, stepped back a little, gave himself some room, and still swung, making solid contact.
Ping!
The ball flew right over the Akikawa third baseman's head.
After it went over him, it bounced in the outfield.
"Past the third baseman, it's open!" someone shouted excitedly.
"Why does this look so familiar? Didn't we see this earlier?" another asked with a touch of bewilderment.
"Yeah, wasn't it this first-year who caught that line drive?" a third chimed in, recalling.
"Akikawa's probably out of luck," someone remarked with a touch of smugness.
Of course, they didn't have such luck.
After all, they didn't have Takumi's Sharingan, so they couldn't predict the ball's landing spot in advance.
By the time the outfielder got there, the ball had already bounced way past him.
Takigawa, who was on second, just took off, blew right past third, and headed straight for home.
"Scored!!" the crowd roared with exhilaration.