A good catcher can influence the entire field—a fact that the team members of Waseda Industries finally understood today, albeit in a less than pleasant way.
Tsuchiya Ryota is a competent catcher, but the influence of Takasugi Masahiro on the field is even more exaggerated—just in the last half-inning, he manipulated the game like a puppeteer, having a strong grasp on the match through his understanding of his own pitcher, the opponent batter's psychology, and analysis of the game situation.
Of course, witnessing it doesn't mean giving up—as baseball is ultimately a team sport: no matter how strong Takasugi Masahiro is, it's impossible for him to win the match by himself.
Tsuchiya Ryota wrapped his arm around Suzuki Kensuke's shoulder, speaking to his teammates:
"Well— I admit that Takasugi is indeed a little stronger than me; however! Kensuke and I together are definitely a thousand times stronger than their pitcher-catcher combo! And our team is a thousand times stronger than their East Asia Academy!"
"In the first round, since the opponent didn't let us score, we can't let them score either! And we need to do better—even their batters shouldn't think about getting on base!"
Encouraged by his passionate words, the starting players in the circle responded loudly with a "Haah" and then jogged to their defensive positions on the field.
After a round of warm-ups, the umpire announced the start of the bottom half of the inning.
In terms of batting order, East Asia Academy kept with baseball tradition: their lead-off batter is third baseman Takatsuka Shouta, known for a high on-base percentage and swift feet, common traits for this kind of batter.
Faced with this type of batter, Suzuki Kensuke and Tsuchiya Ryota exchanged glances and decided on the pitching strategy for this round.
Crouching behind the plate, Tsuchiya Ryota positioned his gloved hand high in the inside corner of the strike zone, and then Suzuki Kensuke on the pitcher's mound fluidly released the ball.
Watching the baseball speed toward home plate, Takatsuka Shouta could hardly suppress the urge to swing; yet, the ball's trajectory gave him pause: the high inside corner can be uncomfortable for batters, but it's also tough for the pitcher to slot it into the strike zone.
In his hesitation, Takatsuka Shouta ultimately decided not to swing.
With a "pop," the ball landed in the catcher's mitt. Tsuchiya Ryota lightly pulled his glove and smoothly returned the ball to the pitcher after catching it.
"Strike!" declared the umpire behind home plate.
Takatsuka Shouta bit his lip, clearly regretting not swinging at what turned out to be a strike—as he thought the ball would drift out of the strike zone, unexpectedly Suzuki Kensuke perfectly placed the ball on the edge of the strike zone.
The second pitch.
Takatsuka Shouta adjusted his breathing, calmed down, stepped back into the batter's box, raised his bat, and fixed his eyes on Suzuki Kensuke's pitching hand, waiting for the second delivery.
Suzuki Kensuke didn't do much adjusting and once again swiftly released the pitch.
The pitch was fast, straight, and aimed at the outside corner—in fractions of a second, Takatsuka Shouta's mind raced, ultimately concluding:
"This is a hittable ball!!!"
Standing in the batter's box, Takatsuka Shouta made a slight adjustment, then fully swung the bat in the ball's direction—but just before the bat could connect, the ball slid under the bat and into the catcher's mitt for the second time.
A low outside slider.
Having swung with full force but missing, Takatsuka Shouta briefly lost his balance and ended up kneeling in the batter's box.
No batter can stand the feeling of swinging mightily only to whiff—the temperature of Takatsuka Shouta's face was rising, obviously not because of the weather; especially with the applause and gasps from the spectators on the stands, which made him feel even more ashamed.
His experience with the first two pitches and the current 0-2 count clearly made Takatsuka Shouta a bit timid—facing the third pitch, despite being a good ball with a straightforward trajectory and not particularly fast, he didn't swing but simply watched the ball pass through the strike zone again and into the catcher's glove.
Following the umpire's call of "Strike! Out!" Takatsuka Shouta finally snapped out of it—his mind crowded with questions like "Who am I?" "Where am I?" "What did I just do?" and "Why did I let such a good ball pass by?" Yet, once he realized, he could only swallow the bitter result of striking out, dejectedly heading back to his team's dugout.
Through the manipulation of inside and outside corners, high and low positions, and delving into the batter's psyche, Waseda's pitcher-catcher duo virtually toyed with their opponent in the first two pitches, returning East Asia Academy a perfect and exhilarating strikeout.
In the East Asia Academy batter's circle.
Watching Takatsuka Shouta walk back, removing his batting gear, second batter Watanabe Tetsuya finished his warm-up swings and asked his frustrated teammate:
"Did you notice any patterns?"
Takatsuka Shouta shook his head: "Tetsuya, you better be careful too. Suzuki is way better than last year, and their catcher's pitch calls are more complex—can't see anything for now."
Watanabe Tetsuya nodded, indicating his understanding. But thinking of the strikeout face of his fellow first batter, he couldn't help but taunt as he went up to bat: "There's also another possibility, that Shouta, you're just too weak—stay on the bench and watch how I hit Suzuki's pitches out."
Against different batters, naturally, one must switch to different pitching strategies: in traditional baseball, the second batter is usually skilled at bunting. Therefore, the Waseda pitcher-catcher pair decided to tangle with Watanabe Tetsuya for a while.
After a struggle, the count reached 2-2—seeing the timing was right, Suzuki Kensuke on the mound and Tsuchiya Ryota behind home plate exchanged a look, deciding on the next pitch strategy.
Standing near home plate, Watanabe Tetsuya felt elated: "Turns out Shouta is just too weak, look how well I'm hitting—once I get on base and score, I can mock Shouta freely when I get back, hahahaha..."
Gathering his thoughts, Watanabe Tetsuya walked into the batter's box, facing the pitcher, and took up a hitting stance.
Suzuki Kensuke on the mound lifted his leg, twisted his body, and sent the ball forward with a swing of his arm—this ball is hittable!!!
"I hit it!!!" Watanabe Tetsuya just felt joy from hitting the ball, but in the next moment, the ball's heavy nature made it hard for him to continue exerting force—this wasn't a regular fastball, but a two-seam fastball!
Forcing the ball out, Watanabe Tetsuya didn't have time to watch its direction and sprinted straight toward first base.
The baseball bounced on the ground once, then soared into the air, caught directly by Suzuki Kensuke who came over to field it from the air; he slightly adjusted and threw the ball toward first base—Sugai Natsuki easily caught it, completing the out.
Then, facing the third batter from East Asia Academy, Suzuki Kensuke chose to increase his speed—three swift, 140 km/h fastballs with tricky angles easily struck out this third batter.
At the end of the inning, whether it was Waseda Industries or East Asia Academy, both sides were evenly matched, giving no ground—the tension of this match continued to escalate.