Coach Kataoka watched the inning where Sawamura pitched with wide eyes.
He knew that Sawamura was a great pitcher, one of the best he'd seen coming fresh into high school.
Only a couple could be related to his skill level at this age, and most of those players went to nationals with their team.
The coach wanted to see if Sawamura had what it took to deliver when needed.
That's why the coach accepted Sawamura's promise of no more runs in the game.
If Sawamura couldn't deliver, it would show his immaturity as a pitcher.
But if he could deliver, it would show that Sawamura was more than just talk.
The coach still remembered Sawamura's declaration at the introductions of the first years.
'I will do everything I can, on and off the field, to help Seido make it to nationals.'
When he remembered that, he had agreed to put him on.
However, he never imagined for a second that Sawamura would have shown that much dominance on the mound from the start.
He didn't let the batters touch any of his pitches.
Obviously, Miyuki's calls helped but to execute them with perfection with the pressure waying down on him, it truly showed his resolve and skill as a pitcher.
He watched as Sawamura was being swarmed by his teammates as he jogged off the field, looking like they had been playing for years together.
The coach gave a slight smirk.
He then remembered what Rei had told him sometime last year when she talked about Sawamura during her scouting runs, he had forgotten about it but seeing the team crowd around him made the memory come flooding back.
Rei had talked about how Sawamura's team back in junior high school were terrible but that he showed great potential despite this fact.
She said, "If it was an average pitcher, he would have given up long before, even so he wasn't bothered by his team's errors, continued to carry his team with relentless pitching. On his back… I feel like I saw a true ace."
Her words stuck with the coach after he thought about it.
But then he shook it off.
'He might not be ready for that yet. We'll see if can keep this kind of consistency.' He thought.
***
As I got back to the dugout, I was swarmed by the team.
They gave their praises whilst hitting me and rustling my hair.
I just took it with a grin.
Then Tanba came up to me and held out his fist.
"Nice pitching, Sawamura." He said to me.
I bumped his fist and replied.
"Thank you, senpai. I told you I'd pay them back tenfold. Did you get a good laugh out of seeing their faces. Hahah!" I said to him with a chuckle.
"Yeah, I saw. Haha!" He replied with a smirk.
I then saw the coach looking at me and turned to him.
"We came back unscathed Coach!" I said to him with a grin.
"Yeah, good work. But the games not over yet." He replied.
"Don't worry Coach, they won't get a single run, so we just need to score during our at bats!" I said.
I then turned to Kuramochi.
"Where are we in the batting order?" I asked him.
"Idiot, Shirasu is up next and you're on deck, get you helmet and bat and go up!" He said whilst giving me a kick.
I quickly went up on deck as Shirasu was about to go up.
"Good luck, Shirasu-senpai. I'm right behind you!" I said to him with a grin.
He turned to me then gave slow nod and walked off.
'Classic Shirasu! Not a man with many words but consistently delivers on the field.' I thought with a smirk.
I watched Shirasu walk into the batter's box as I took a couple of practise swings with my bat.
I then paid a lot of attention to the Yokohama's pitcher, trying to gauge the timing of my swing.
I didn't get a lot of information as Shirasu managed to smack the second pitch into the outfield for a double.
I took a deep breath and walked up to the batter's box.
'Should I play with them a little?' I thought when I looked at the Yokohama catcher.
I then started to play off as nervous, making my legs and arms shake a little while walking up to the batter's box.
The catcher saw me and almost laughed.
'So, he's a monster rookie pitcher but terrible at batting? I guess this will be an easy out. This is good, our pitcher isn't looking too great after that last hit, and he needs this to boost his confidence and let him reset.' He thought.
He then called for a four-seam, in which the pitcher nodded and started his windup.
As soon as he did, I then stopped the act and got into my proper batting form, focusing at the incoming pitch.
WHOOOSH
When I saw it was a fastball, I inwardly laughed.
'Fastballs are my favourite pitch to hit, you know?' I thought as I swung with all my might, easily placing my bat in the balls path with the help of my 'hand-eye coordination' skill.
DIING
I followed through the full swing after hitting the ball and then dropped my bat and started sprinting with all my might.
I wasn't sure exactly where the ball had gone, so I started looking for it.
I soon spotted it going all the way to the the outfield.
'Don't catch it! Don't catch it!' I thought as it kept going.
It finally landed a little bit away from the wall just before the end of the outfield, luckily none of the outfielders got to it in time.
I rounded past first and sprinted for second.
I saw that the outfielder had just got the ball and threw it when I was coming up to second, so I slid the final stretch and safely made it on base just before the second basemen tagged me out.
"Safe!" The second base umpire called.
"What a great hit from the rookie pitcher, Sawamura Eijun! It looks like he is also good with a bat as well as with the ball. Bringing in an RBI double on the first pitch thrown at him! He looked a little nervous entering the batter's box, but could he have played into it to throw the Yokohama's battery off? What an amusing rookie, he's using his own inexperience as a weapon against the opposition!" The commentator stated.
After that, the crowd and Seido dugout started cheering loudly.
I looked and saw that Shirasu had easily made it back home.
'An RBI double on my first at bat, not bad.' I thought smiling.
I called a timeout with the umpire and stood and dusted myself off and turned to the dugout and pumped my fist.
Shirasu was the first to respond with a thumbs up.
Then the rest of the team responded.
"SHAAA! NICE SAWAMURA!" Isashiki shouted with a pumped fist.
"Hahah he really has the same batting form as Azuma-san." Miyuki said from behind Isashiki.
"What do you mean by that?" Isashiki asked, turning to him.
"Oh, did you not know? Azuma-san taught Sawamura to bat after he struck him out last year. Even I was surprised by it." Miyuki replied.
"WHAAAAAT!?! Azuma-senpai taught that brat?" Isashiki shouted.
Kuramochi was next up to the batter's box.
I looked over at coach who gave instructions.
He signed for a sacrifice bunt and that I should take a lead and run as soon as the pitcher throws.
I nodded at that the call.
I then thought I should distract the opposition a little bit to throw them off.
"Kuramochi-senpai, hit a big one and send me home!" I shouted to him, waving my arms a little to get people's attention.
"Yaha! Shut up, brat! Just wait right there, I'll send you home in a second!" Kuramochi responded as he stepped into the batter's box, noticing what I was doing.
I then started to silently take a few steps away from second base.
As soon as the pitcher looked over at me, I quickly stepped back towards second.
Then, as soon as he looked away, I took an even further lead, really stretching it.
I soon as he started his motion from set and throw towards Kuramochi, I sprinted as fast as I could, pumping the muscles in my legs as I ate the ground beneath me.
"Steal!" Yokohama's second baseman shouted as he saw me set off.
WHOOOSH
TINK
I heard Kuramochi's bunt and saw the third basemen running off the base to get to it, I kept sprinting and easily stepped onto third with no issues.
I looked over at first as I saw Kuramochi and the ball get to first at the same time.
The umpire took a second to replay the play in his mind and made the motion for his decision.
"Out!" He spoke.
I slightly sighed at that call; it could have been called either way with how close it was.
"Nice bunt Kuramochi-senpai!" I called to him as he started jogging back to the dugout.
He replied with giving me a thumbs up.
Then it was Kominato's turn to bat.
He walked up to the batter's box and glanced at me.
I then flashed him a big grin, which made him chuckle a bit.
'This brat is looking at me like he's expecting to get a hit for him.' He thought with a smirk. 'Well, I can't let my little kohai down when he's making such and earnest request.'
He then looked at the pitcher who was currently looking fatigued and annoyed.
I was currently taking a few steps off third base, to put more pressure on the pitcher as he was looking right at me as he was righthanded.
He looked at me with a frown and I replied with a grin.
He seemed angry at this gesture and threw towards the third baseman.
But I was already one step ahead, as soon as I grinned, I started diving back to the base as I knew he was rattled and thought he would try to get me out.
I got back to the base way before the tag and stayed there until umpire called time.
I got back up off my feet and dusted myself off slightly.
I then looked back at the pitcher and then started taking an even bigger lead off the base.
This pissed him off even more, but he didn't react as his catcher had signed to focus on the batter.
I chuckled slightly when I saw a vein popping on his forehead as he looked at me.
He then threw with all his might towards Kominato.
WHOOSH
'Weaksauce.' I thought as I saw the pitch.
I must have really made him angry.
DING
Kominato easily hit the ball over the infielders' heads landing and rolling into the outfield.
I managed to run to Homeplate with ease for the run.
The crowd started cheering at that again.
When I got to Homeplate, I saw Isashiki walking towards me.
"Nice run, brat!" He said to me.
"Isashiki-senpai, that pitcher is rattled right now, finish him off and crush him." I said to him whilst holding out my hand.
He smacked it hard and replied.
"Damn straight brat. I'll make him cry!" He said as he walked away.
I chuckled at that.
'As expected of Isashiki-senpai.' I thought as I turned towards the dugout.
I met Yuki on the way as he was on deck.
"Captain, that pitcher is rattled right now, hopefully their coach keeps him on until your at bat, if he does, make sure to make him regret it." I said to him with a smile.
He looked at me with a smirk and then smacked my helmet.
"Nice running Sawamura. Leve the rest to us." He said.
"Yes!" I replied, walking into the dugout.
When I got there, I first saw Miyuki and coach standing together.
"Nice run, Sawamura." Miyuki said.
"Thanks." I replied.
"Who taught you batting and base running?" The coach suddenly asked.
"Well, for batting, Azuma-senpai taught me his form for a while last year and I've been training with that as foundation ever since." I replied.
"As for base running, I've never been taught it. I just kept thinking of ways to rattle the pitcher and make him distracted. The pitchers and the catchers of the first and second string have been having these sessions throughout this week and in one of the sessions, we talked about strategies against base runners and which ones were the most annoying to face so I just kept doing things that they mentioned, haha." I replied while scratching my head.
The coach slightly smirked at that.
"The pitcher's and catchers are having sessions together?" He asked Miyuki.
"Yeah, we got together to discuss all aspects of pitching and catching, mainly going through why catchers make calls and when they call them. It's to try and get the pitchers to think more about their actions on the mound and why they do them." Miyuki replied.
"Whose idea was that?" The coach asked.
Miyuki replied whilst hitting my helmet.
"It was this brat's and Chris' idea." Miyuki replied.
Suddenly a loud scream interrupted the conversation.
We all turned to the field.
"SHHHHAAAAAA!!" Isashiki's loud voice, as he swung, covered the stadium.
DIIING
It went straight into the back wall with power and bounced back into the field.
"Well, I guess I'll be up next." Miyuki said as he walked up on deck.
"Good luck!" I said whilst walking away to change out of my helmet.
After that, I sat down at the back of the dugout and checked on the mission for one of the tasks.
[>Make a play when in the batter's box (Completed)]
'Okay, I've finished that mission. Now I need to focus on pitching for the rest of the game, I'll take it easier while batting and running to keep my stamina up.' I thought as I stood up and joined the rest of the team.