“Strike!”

“Strike!!”

“Strike!!!”

“Struck out!!”

Hidezawa deliberately used a poorly disguised pitch to lure the batter into swinging, successfully picking up another out.

His reckless approach—showing no concern for stamina, pitch count, or physical limits—completely shattered the batting rhythm of Ichidai Third High School. They had expected him to follow the same path as Kameshima: a final, desperate head-on clash.

But Hidezawa refused to play along.

By the time Ichidai San’s next batter stepped into the box, they had no choice but to adjust their strategy.

And the moment they changed, Seido High School immediately sensed it.

Miyuki Kazuya was far too sharp to miss such a shift.

From the batter’s stance alone, he could already tell that Ichidai Third High School was hesitating.

This inning… we’ve got it, Miyuki thought calmly.

With a clear plan in mind, he abandoned the edge-painting pitches they had relied on earlier. Instead, he decisively called for sharp-angled Changeups—pitches that demanded both patience and advanced timing.

If this had been Ichidai Third High School’s core batters, they might have been able to adapt. But this was the bottom of the lineup.

The ninth batter clearly didn’t have that level of ability. Two excellent pitches passed cleanly through the strike zone, and he could only watch them helplessly. By the third pitch, he was completely cornered.

Left with no other option, he gritted his teeth and swung.

Hidezawa’s Changeup might not have matched Kameshima’s in refinement, but it was more than enough to overwhelm Ichidai San’s lower-order batter. The baseball slipped cleanly past the bat and snapped into Miyuki Kazuya’s glove.

“Snap!”

“Struck out!!”

Three outs.

Side retired.

The momentum Kameshima had ignited, the passion and determination he had instilled into Ichidai Third High School, had convinced many spectators that Ichidai San would surely make something happen in the eighth inning.

Yet that momentum was cut down mercilessly by Hidezawa. Ichidai Third High School was forced to cling to their fragile one-run lead. And they made a decision.

They changed pitchers.

A move like this was a double-edged sword. If handled poorly, it could just as easily turn against them.

Back in the Seido dugout, Hidezawa and Miyuki were welcomed like heroes.

Players rushed to help Hidezawa loosen up, massaging his shoulders and arms, urging him to rest. Others gathered around Miyuki—not saying a word, simply surrounding him like stars orbiting the moon.

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Their gratitude didn’t need to be spoken.

After Chris’s injury, if Miyuki hadn’t stepped up, no one dared imagine what Seido’s situation would have become.

Even with Zhang Han joining the team, even with what many called the strongest batting lineup in all of Tokyo—what would it matter?

Without a stable pitcher-catcher battery, everything else was just empty talk.

Against weaker opponents, Seido could rely on overwhelming firepower. But against a team like Ichidai Third High School, any weakness would be magnified infinitely. Especially if there were cracks in the pitcher-catcher relationship.

Fortunately—

That weakness no longer existed.

“Leave the rest to us!” someone shouted.

The score was still 4–3, with Seido High School Baseball Team trailing by one run.

Ichidai Third High School sent in their relief pitcher: Manaka Kaname.

He was a well-known star who had already made a name for himself in middle school. Since entering Ichidai San, he had been highly praised, and his performances as a reliever in previous games were nothing short of impressive.

No matter how one looked at it, this was a formidable opponent.

Scoring off him would not be easy. But not a single Seido batter hesitated. Their only real fear had been an unreliable pitcher.

Now that their pitcher had proven himself, everything else felt manageable.

Scoring runs? For Seido’s batters, that was never the problem.

The first to step into the batter’s box was Hidezawa himself. Due to extreme physical exhaustion, he couldn’t generate much power and was quickly retired.

“Ping!”

“Thwack!”

“Out!”

The ball was caught cleanly and thrown to first base, tagging Hidezawa out. Getting an out immediately after coming in, Ichidai Third High School’s players were overjoyed.

“That’s it! Only five more outs!”

Yet even as they celebrated, a trace of unease lingered.

Hidezawa’s stamina had already surpassed expectations. They had to prepare for the worst.

If their next offensive inning still failed to produce results, they might be forced to rely solely on defense to secure the win.

One out.

No runners on base.

“Third batter, outfielder—Yamada!”

Seido’s third batter stepped up.

Yamada had a mature face and two especially prominent canine teeth. Aside from Azuma Kiyokuni—who looked more like a middle-aged man than a high schooler—Yamada was the other player who appeared particularly old.

In Hidezawa and Tanaka’s words, they were Seido’s infamous “Fat and Ugly Duo.”

Their looks aside, their strength was unquestionable.

Perhaps fate, in an effort to balance things out, had compensated them with exceptional baseball talent.

Looking toward Manaka Kaname on the mound, Yamada grinned, exposing his canine teeth.

“A second-year,” he said. “How enviable.”

“And precisely because it’s enviable,” he continued, tightening his grip on the bat, “it makes me want to hit even more!”

“Ping!”

Yamada swung decisively.

The bat connected solidly with the ball, and Yamada wasted no time sprinting toward first base.

“That was fast!”

“Wasn’t he completely suppressed by Kameshima earlier? How did he suddenly wake up?”

“No comparison. That was Kameshima—probably the strongest pitcher in all of Tokyo. Manaka’s good, but he’s still just ‘strong,’ not terrifying.”

One out.

Runner on first.

Seido’s sudden counterattack caught Ichidai San slightly off guard.

And worse still—

The next batter was far more dangerous.

“Fourth batter, third baseman—Azuma Kiyokuni!”

“Haha!!”

Like a moving mountain of flesh, Azuma stepped into the batter’s box.

Ichidai Third High School’s catcher felt his heart sink. To be honest, he did not want to face Azuma Kiyokuni head-on in this situation. One clean hit from this man could flip the entire game.

But there was no safe alternative. Seido’s lineup was simply too terrifying.

If they intentionally walked Azuma, they would have to deal with Yuuki or Zhang Han next—and risk loading the bases.

Just imagining that scenario made the catcher shudder. It was too tragic to even think about. With no other choice, they decided to face Azuma directly.

If Manaka could get him out, everything would change.

“Whoosh!”

Manaka poured all his strength into the pitch. Azuma Kiyokuni’s eyes snapped open.

“Boom!”

A swing like a mountain collapsing and the earth splitting thundered through the stadium.

“Ping!”

The white ball rocketed skyward. And flew straight out of the stadium. In Seido High School’s dugout, chaos erupted.

“We’ve won for sure!”

************************************

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