"They scored! Seido High School Baseball Team scored!!"
Comntator Fujita, usually known for his calm and professional deanor, spoke with an excited, slightly hoarse voice. It felt as if he had torn his vocal cords.
His heart was pounding.
Just when it seed the ga was about to end, Seido had produced a miracle at the last mont. They had gotten a run back.
The score was 6:5.
The gap was now one run.
But that wasn't even the most important part. The most important part was that Seido's fourth and fifth batters had kept the lineup moving. If nothing unexpected happened, the upper portion of the order would co up again in the ninth inning.
The hitting power of Seido's upper lineup was sothing everyone present had now seen for themselves. All five of Seido's runs so far had co from their top five batters. A string of hits from Zhang Han and Yuuki, Zhang Han's two-run ho run, Kuramochi scoring on speed, and now the combination of Yuuki and Isashiki Jun.
Five runs. All of them from the top five.
As long as that group ca up again, Seido would have another real chance.
Facing what had looked like a certain defeat, Seido had co back to life. The outco of the ga was unpredictable again.
The Inashiro players stared at their opponents with genuine discomfort.
They had pushed Seido to the brink three tis. Three tis, Seido had pulled through. Their spirit and willpower were almost incomprehensible. Was the goddess of luck truly standing entirely on Seido's side today?
Inashiro's players could not accept that. They refused to.
No matter the cost, no matter how much stamina it took or how many trump cards had to be used, they had to suppress Seido again.
"One out!!"
"Let him hit it. We'll stop it."
Inashiro's players rallied behind their pitcher in their own way.
Narumiya i, standing on the mound, had the most complicated feelings of anyone on the field. He had been so close to securing the win. He hadn't expected Seido to be this persistent.
Tokyo truly was a strange place.
Even pitching as well as he had, with nothing to criticize in his performance, he still might not co out on top.
"Even if it's written in the heavens, I will break those rules today."
He wasn't going to give up. He would push through in one go.
Then he got off to a bad start.
"Ping!"
Miyuki swung boldly on the very first pitch.
Both Harada and Narumiya i had assud that Miyuki, with his sharp and calculating nature, would wait and look for a changeup. Instead, he swung at the first pitch, and swung at a fastball at that.
It wasn't a clean hit. The ball was quickly intercepted by an Inashiro infielder. A throw to first base would have gotten Miyuki out easily.
But Hirai, Inashiro's second baseman, didn't throw to first.
Isashiki Jun had gotten a step early and was already advancing to third. If Hirai threw to first and Seido recorded an out, Isashiki Jun would likely break straight for ho. If he made it, the score would be tied.
With only one inning remaining, Inashiro could not accept that.
Hirai threw directly to ho plate instead, cutting off Isashiki Jun's path.
"These guys are too gutless!"
Isashiki Jun was openly displeased. He had been ready to run, but Inashiro had covered ho before he could commit.
One out, runners on first and third.
Seido's chances of scoring had increased considerably.
Even Fujio, the Baseball Kingdom Magazine reporter who had not been favoring Seido, was taken aback. The ga had gone in a completely different direction from what he had originally imagined. Seido's players were hitting Narumiya i's pitches as if they had so advantage he couldn't account for. If this continued, the outco truly would be open.
On the mound, the pitcher had now given up three consecutive hits.
What made it worse was that two of them had co without any clear explanation. Aside from the confrontation with Yuuki, where Narumiya i had put in full effort and still couldn't hold the result, the other two batters had sohow gotten hits before he even understood what had happened.
It was baffling.
Narumiya i felt unsettled. But his conviction hadn't wavered, not even slightly, from the first inning to this mont. He was going to win this ga. No matter who stepped up. No matter how tenacious Seido's players turned out to be.
Back in Seido's dugout, the mood was electric. After Zhang Han had been struck out, no one had dared to imagine they would still find themselves in this position. Three consecutive hits. A run back. Runners on the corners.
Could they actually win this?
From a pure strength perspective, they didn't have the advantage. But that was what made a ga like this worth watching. Outcos weren't guaranteed. Maybe Seido's mont had truly arrived.
"Whoosh!"
While Seido's players were still caught up in that feeling, the white ball shot forward without warning. No one could react. The baseball was already in the catcher's mitt.
"Thwack!"
"Strike!!"
The stadium fell quiet.
The joking, loose-spirited Narumiya i had vanished sowhere along the way. The man now standing on the mound looked identical to him, but gave off an entirely different impression. He radiated sothing cold and immovable from head to toe. Like a prince who had set aside all pretense, looking down from sowhere unreachable.
"I will never give you a chance."
"Strike!"
"Strike!!"
"Strike!!!"
"Strikeout!!"
Narumiya i recorded his tenth strikeout of the ga. Imdiately after, he induced a ground ball from Sakai.
The inning was over. Seido had not scored again.
Score: 6:5. Seido trailing by one run.
The ga moved to the ninth inning.
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