As opponents who have faced each other several times, the players of Waseda Jitsugyo have a certain understanding of the types of pitches Mihori Yuusuke masters:
As a traditional, orthodox pitcher, Mihori Yuusuke's pitch arsenal mainly consists of fastballs and their variations. When needed, he would use breaking balls like curveballs;
However, the changeup was completely unexpected—Mihori Yuusuke had never thrown a single changeup in all their previous encounters.
Faced with this unexpected changeup, even though Onoda demonstrated his excellent body control as a power hitter, due to a misjudgment in swing timing, he barely managed to hit the ball—
"Snap!" With a collision against the bat, the baseball wobbly flew towards the area between the mound and home plate.
Seeing this, Takasugi Masahiro immediately took off his catcher's mask, swiftly got up, and moved forward, ready to easily catch this weak high fly ball, thus ending the inning.
He raised his head to locate the baseball, but the midday sun suddenly glared, causing his eyes to sting painfully, forcing him to blink—yet it was in this blink that Takasugi Masahiro terrifyingly found he lost sight of the baseball.
"Thud"—the sound of the ball hitting the ground.
Just when he thought the inning was about to end, and was preparing to walk back from third base to the dugout, Shigetsugu Shinjiro saw the unforeseen situation. His brain did not have time to react, and his physical instincts drove him to sprint towards home plate.
Meanwhile, Takasugi Masahiro quickly picked the ball from the ground and dashed towards home plate of his team—he just needed to tag Shigetsugu Shinjiro out before he touched the base to prevent any score changes.
They almost simultaneously arrived at home plate, their bodies collided fiercely; after separating, both looked up at the umpire, waiting for the verdict that would decide the fate of this inning.
"Safe!" The umpire's arm lifted high into the air, loudly declaring his judgment.
Hearing the umpire's call for safe at base, Shigetsugu Shinjiro jumped up with a "whoosh," shouted directly "yasss," and ran towards his cheering teammates in the Waseda Jitsugyo dugout;
As for Takasugi Masahiro, he buried his head low, vigorously pounding the ground several times, evidently deeply regretting his mistake.
"Who would have thought that the unshakeable cornerstone of East Asia Academy, the strong catcher Takasugi, would unexpectedly commit an error that gift-wrapped the first point of the match—perhaps not even Hollywood movies could depict such a plot!" The commentator on TV exclaimed.
And with this dramatic score by Shigetsugu Shinjiro, Waseda Industries took the lead, temporarily standing at a 1:0 score against East Asia Academy.
While slowly getting up from the ground, Takasugi Masahiro had almost adjusted his mindset.
Annoyed? Definitely annoyed. But sometimes baseball is such a frustrating sport, where any minor mistake can lead to huge losses;
The game must go on; there is no time to reflect on past errors.
"Only one point, let's secure the last out of this inning. There's still enough time moving forward," thought Takasugi Masahiro.
But he evidently underestimated his influence over the entire East Asia Academy baseball team.
Compared to Takasugi Masahiro lying on the ground, the other players from East Asia Academy felt more shocked:
To these East Asia Academy players, Takasugi Masahiro was like a towering mountain behind them, the spiritual pillar of the whole team;
Stability was his synonym—in his teammates' eyes, he consistently led the team forward with spectacular defense and powerful hitting.
The word "error" was meant to be unrelated to him; Takasugi never made mistakes, nor was he supposed to.
But now, the mountain had collapsed.
In possibly their last high school game, this captain who never errs made a significant mistake.
High school players' statuses are inherently unstable, and after Waseda Jitsugyo's somewhat lucky score, East Asia Academy's once sturdy defense suddenly became shaky.
With two outs and a runner on first base, pitcher Mihori Yuusuke consecutively walked four balls, sending the fifth batter Tsuchiya Ryouta to base;
Then, facing Waseda's sixth batter Sugai Natsuki hitting a weak grounder, East Asia Academy's shortstop Kobayashi made a wild throw to first base, directly sending Onoda Shunsuke back home.
Although in the next play, East Asia Academy successfully defended against Waseda's seventh batter Fukasawa Kouta, securing the final out of this half-inning;
But the damage was done, and due to East Asia Academy's own mistakes, Waseda scored again, bringing the overall match score to 2:0.
Upon returning to the dugout, Takasugi Masahiro immediately apologized to his teammates, taking full responsibility:
"I'm sorry, everyone. That lost point is entirely my fault, and the subsequent second point was a chain reaction caused by my mistake; all responsibility should be mine."
But then he continued, pointing towards the scoreboard: "But everyone, don't be discouraged, alright? The match has only played five innings; we are fully capable of turning the score around!"
"Forget the game of that half-inning; let's start from the next inning, slowly bringing the game back into our rhythm!"
Glancing towards the Waseda Industries dugout, Takasugi Masahiro continued to fuel the fire: "Let's not forget, baseball games start from the bottom of the ninth inning! What the opponents achieved last game, we can do too!"
Encouraged by his firm and powerful words, the players of East Asia Academy regained their spirits. The shortstop Kobayashi, who had thrown the wild pitch leading to a lost score, stood up and confessed to his surrounding teammates:
"The responsibility for that inning absolutely shouldn't be borne by the captain alone; I threw that wild pitch as the team's shortstop, and I apologize to everyone—there won't be any more errors on grounders from now on!"
Subsequently, Mihori Yuusuke's voice echoed: "I also share the responsibility for those two lost points, many pitches that should've gone in I failed to deliver, and also walked a few batters. But it won't happen moving forward—this genius will strike them all out one by one!"
Seeing the boost in team morale, Takasugi Masahiro seized the opportunity and rallied all East Asia Academy players into a circle, extending his hand.
With a three-count down, their layered hands were thrust upwards towards the sky, shouting the same phrase:
"East Asia Academy, must win! Must win!! Must win!!!"