"They overtook us that fast?"
"These new players really aren't good enough."
"Even though Seido's performance hasn't been great these past two years, the players trained by Coach Kataoka still reach a certain level."
"Compared to them, the new players have a huge gap."
The alumni watching from the stands talked nonstop. From their comments, anyone could tell how the game currently stood.
The New School Teammates were in a terrible position. The score was 4 to 3. The lead Miyuki and Zhang Han worked so hard to build had completely vanished. Worse, the Old-timers' offense looked endless. There was no telling when it would stop.
The freshmen, who had finally built some momentum earlier, saw their morale crash in an instant. Compared to their seniors, they were still too green.
In fact, even when they were ahead, they could sense it. They had only pushed the unease down because they were winning. Once the Old-timers took the lead, those buried thoughts came back to the surface.
Through the recent innings, they finally understood the truth: The gap between their strength and the Old-timers' strength was simply too big.
The freshmen's initial enthusiasm had cooled. After playing a few innings, they had gained a clearer, more realistic understanding of themselves. They now knew what they were actually capable of and what role they could play in a game like this.
To put it bluntly, without Miyuki and Zhang Han's leadership, the rest of the freshmen wouldn't have been able to perform at all. The New School Teammates would never have built such an early advantage. Aside from the two of them, only Kuramochi and Shirasu had put up performances that were barely acceptable.
The others had mostly been spectators. That even included Kawakami on the mound. Without Miyuki's guidance, Kawakami alone would have struggled to handle the upperclassmen.
Now his pitching patterns were exposed. He could no longer bluff or pressure the seniors the way he did in the beginning. More and more balls were being hit.
Once the Old-timers got used to his rhythm and timing, it became nearly impossible to keep the game under control with him alone.
And the scariest part wasn't even that. Kawakami's mindset had cracked. His confidence was gone. If he had stayed calm the way he started, with Miyuki catching for him, he might still have kept the damage within limits. But now he was unraveling. It was no longer possible to rely on him to hold the score.
At that moment, Coach Kataoka spoke.
"Send in Kawashima."
The freshmen were stunned. When the Old-timers were struggling earlier, Kataoka immediately brought out Chris, the true core of the team, to avoid embarrassing the seniors and to give the freshmen a warning.
They had complaints, but they understood why he did it. For the Ace's dignity and the team's reputation, the welcoming match could not end with the freshmen winning. A group of players who hadn't even gone through training beating players who had spent one or two years under the coach's guidance? No director would allow that.
No matter how much potential the freshmen had, or how impressive their middle school records were, this result could never happen.
In other words, even though Kataoka seemed fair on the surface, he was firmly standing with the Old-timers. There was no way he would help the New School Teammates strategize. If he didn't replace the Old-timers' core players, that alone was already generous.
But they never expected him to make this decision now.
"Director, he…" Manager Ota frowned, confused.
Now that the Old-timers were finally showing their strength, Kataoka should have left the lineup alone. He should have let the game continue and let the seniors widen the lead, erasing the earlier embarrassment.
"Director Kataoka isn't a petty man. His goal is to test the players on the field and see who deserves to represent Seido. Freshmen or upperclassmen, if they have the strength, he'll promote them."
Miyuki.
Zhang Han.
Even though the match wasn't over yet, their brilliance was already obvious to everyone. They would be promoted for sure.
The real question was whether there were any pitchers among the freshmen worth developing. After all, the First-string's biggest weakness right now was pitching depth.
Kawashima, whose evaluation scores were higher than Kawakami's, ended up performing poorly. In a single inning, he gave up six runs. Even with Miyuki catching for him, he didn't show Kawakami's level of control.
Looking back, people started thinking Kawakami's performance earlier wasn't bad at all. At first they believed he only performed well because Miyuki carried him. They thought he was nothing more than a pitching machine.
But comparison changes everything. Next to Kawashima, Kawakami suddenly looked much better. He clearly had potential.
By the fifth inning, the score was 10 to 3. The freshmen were trailing by seven runs.
Coach Kataoka gave another instruction. Zhang Han to the mound, Miyuki to second base.
Ono Hiroshi, who had partnered with Zhang Han under Matsukata, moved to catcher.
It was clear that the welcoming match was never meant for everyone. From the start, Coach Kataoka focused only on players who had a real chance at promotion. First-string and second team candidates. As for those who wouldn't reach the required level in the short term, he didn't consider them at all.
Top of the fifth. New School Teammates at bat. One out, bases empty.
And the batter was once again Zhang Han.
"Speaking of which, this batch of freshmen isn't bad at all. They've already gotten several hits."
"And they scored three runs!"
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