Ace of Diamond: Return of the Pitcher

While Sawamura has good relationships in the entire Seidou's Baseball Club, there are few who are truly Eijun's friends.

One of them is Kariba.

Whether it is before or after his regression, Eijun has always had a strong bond with Kariba.

So, when his friend suddenly became listless, Sawamura naturally wanted to ask what happened.

But Kariba kept everything to himself, and there was no way for Sawamura to get the answers he wanted directly from him.

Thus, Sawamura had to find out on his own.

After asking a few second-string teammates, Sawamura had a pretty clear idea of what was going on.

In fact, it wasn't complicated at all—it was about position competition, wasn't it?

The extravagant hope of being promoted to the First String was long gone for Kariba. He knew very well the strength of Miyuki and Ono.

Although his own talent was decent, compared to those two, he was clearly on a different level.

It was nearly impossible to take the main catcher position from them.

Kariba knew his own limits, but that didn't mean he was willing to give up his spot for a first-year player.

Even though he couldn't challenge the first string right now, it didn't mean he was any less skilled.

On the contrary, Kariba was quite excellent as a catcher. Otherwise, Sawamura wouldn't have been able to practice with him on a regular basis.

It was a logical situation, but everything changed dramatically with the arrival of a new student.

This new student was, of course, Okumura.

With an overwhelming presence, Okumura simply outperformed Kariba, the main catcher of the second string.

For Kariba, this was, of course, a cruel situation. But there was nothing he could do; this was the truth.

In competitive sports, weakness is an original sin. If you're weak and lose to others, don't get too worked up. Because getting angry won't solve any problems.

"No wonder that guy looks so out of it!"

Sawamura finally understood the reason for Kariba's low mood.

He felt helpless about it.

The only thing he could do was find a chance to talk to Kariba and try to help him through it.

However, based on his own feelings, Sawamura didn't think Kariba needed any special help. That guy was fundamentally a very cheerful person with a high spirit. Maybe he looked downcast at the time, but once his pride had time to recover, Sawamura believed that Kariba would turn this into motivation for self-improvement.

That being said, Okumura's presence was truly everywhere.

As someone who had once been a partner with Okumura, Sawamura was well aware of Okumura's potential. He had always thought it would take some time for Okumura to really grow, but now it seemed that Okumura's growth was happening much faster than he had imagined.

This wasn't too surprising. After all, there were so many excellent players in this year's batch. Once they gathered together, there was bound to be some kind of chemical reaction between them.

From the current results, it seemed to be a positive one.

Meanwhile, in the office of Superintendent Kataoka.

After discussing Okumura and Hirota, Coach Kataoka asked about the other second-string players.

He knew exactly what kind of strength those in the second and third grades had. There was no way they could suddenly experience a dramatic improvement just because he had been away from the team for a few days.

So, his focus was still on the freshmen.

"The other freshmen are also working very hard," Coach Ochiai said, pinching the little goatee on his chin, hesitating.

Coach Kataoka nodded at him.

Although Coach Ochiai didn't fully explain, Coach Kataoka could already hear the implied meaning.

In other words, those freshmen weren't performing as strongly as expected.

This wasn't surprising.

The level of Seidou High's second-string was still quite high.

Even though those freshmen had stood out in the third-string team, it wasn't easy to perform so well once they joined the second-string.

After all, what really mattered in the competition was the overall strength of the players.

Those freshmen might be particularly good at one aspect, but if they were truly used in a competitive context, they wouldn't stand out as much.

Coach Ochiai saw the expression on Coach Kataoka's face and realized he had misunderstood.

However, he didn't explain much further but instead made a gesture toward President Ota.

This next part of the story wasn't something he should be the one to tell Coach Kataoka.

President Ota nervously rubbed his hands.

He didn't know how to say it without it sounding offensive.

Because Kataoka's current level of achievement translated into absolute authority over the team, what they had done can be said to be stepping on his toes.

"Is something wrong?" Coach Kataoka asked gently.

The reason sometimes President Ota felt lacking in confidence was mainly due to their professional gap.

Of course, the most important thing in Seidou High's baseball club was baseball.

Why could coach Ochiai have long discussions with Coach Kataoka?

It was because Coach Ochiai knew baseball.

Coach Ochiai could provide professional advice and assistance to Coach Kataoka.

While President Ota also knew some baseball, what he knew was becoming less and less sufficient.

Gradually, the gap between him and the other three giants grew larger.

This left Coach Kataoka helpless.

The key was personal attitude. As long as President Ota could adjust himself and focus on supporting the team, everything else would be fine.

"Yes, there's a player who was promoted to the second string recently!"

This came as another complete surprise for Kataoka.

Even though Coach Kataoka had been mentally prepared, he didn't expect it to happen.

Which player had been promoted had always been decided by Coach Kataoka.

Although President Ota and coach Ochiai also had the right to select players for the second string, they had never used that authority before.

Moreover, even if they wanted to use it, shouldn't they have consulted with the Coach first?

Coach Kataoka's eyes suddenly grew sharp.

He looked at Coach Ochiai and then at President Ota.

Coach Ochiai, stroking his goatee, had a calm expression.

President Ota, nervously rubbing his hands, looked uncomfortable.

Countless thoughts flashed through Coach Kataoka's mind in an instant.

In the end, he chose to suppress his urge to explode.

His authority had been challenged, and no one would feel good about that. Coach Kataoka was a normal person, and of course, he had a temper.

But he was able to restrain himself.

Whether it was Coach Ochiai or President Ota, they weren't random people. They must have had their reasons for doing this.

"Who?" Coach Kataoka asked, controlling his emotions.

At this moment, President Ota relaxed.

Now that the matter was out in the open, the pressure in his heart vanished.

"Matsumoto…"

Seidou's Soul Dormitory, Dormitory No. 5.

"Shisho! Shisho!!!"

A knock was heard at the door.

"The door's not closed, come in!"

Sawamura was just about to pick up his bat to practice his hitting.

Miyuki had been 'captured' by Furuya, so there was no way they could practice his breaking balls together for the time being.

The door creaked open, and Matsumoto walked in with a big smile on his face.

"Do you want to practice with me?"

Sawamura raised his bat.

Matsumoto shook his head vigorously, then raised his hand, wearing a catcher's Mitt.

"You should still be working on developing new breaking balls, right? I can catch for you."

Sawamura carefully looked at his little Kohai, feeling like he was seeing him in a new light.

He clearly remembered how Matsumoto looked right after the freshman games.

Matsumoto had looked completely dejected.

Having been placed in the third-string team, unless some special opportunity came up, it seemed impossible for him to be promoted to the first-string before the summer tournament.

But now, here he was, beaming with a bright, sunny smile.

Without needing to dig deep, Sawamura could guess that this guy must have been promoted to the second-string.

As for whether Matsumoto had the ability to make it, Sawamura had never doubted him.

What intrigued Sawamura was how this guy had managed to do it.

"How did you manage to talk coach Ochiai and President Ota into it? President Ota is lenient, you could easily talk him into it, but coach Ochiai is as sharp as a fox..."

Faced with his Senpai's unrelenting teasing, Matsumoto couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed.

"How can you say I talked them into it? I earned it through my own ability."

"Ha! I don't believe you!"

Without a hint of hesitation, Sawamura tossed his bat aside.

Although he enjoyed hitting, it wasn't as alluring as pitching.

"With that much confidence, what Level do you think you can catch at?"

Having spent a lot of time practicing together, Matsumoto had caught Sawamura's balls more than anyone else recently.

He was already capable of catching Level 1 and Level 2 breaking balls.

As for Level 3 breaking balls, he could handle most of them, and even when he couldn't catch them cleanly, he could still block them.

In terms of catching, he had been the most reliable among the three new freshman catchers.

"Let's start with the Cut ball Kai!"

Matsumoto looked incredibly fired up.

Seeing him like this suddenly made Sawamura feel a strange sense of foreboding.

Maybe, after Miyuki and the others left, the player closest to the first-string catcher position wasn't who they originally thought it would be—Yui or Okumura.

Instead, it might just be this little guy in front of him.

Seidou High Baseball Club, Kataoka's Office.

"Hey, so what's Matsumoto been up to lately?"

Superintendent Kataoka was genuinely curious.

He had thought of many candidates, but Matsumoto was not one of them.

To be honest, it wasn't really Kataoka's fault.

Aside from his catching ability, Matsumoto had left a very ordinary impression on him.

During the previous freshman games, Matsumoto had been completely lackluster.

Kataoka could not imagine promoting him to the first-string team.

Even if Matsumoto could help the Seidou pitchers perform at their peak, Kataoka had been hesitant about promoting him to the first-string.

Now, however, Coach Ochiai and President Ota had both recommended him in unison.

This was absolutely surprising to Superintendent Kataoka.

He was eager to understand what had happened to make these two change their attitudes so drastically.

"After Matsumoto didn't make the cut in the freshman games, he was particularly down. He'd often hide in a corner by himself and wouldn't say a word. I couldn't stand it, so I asked him a few questions, then encouraged him a little."

President Ota seemed a bit emotional as he spoke about this.

Superintendent Kataoka's mind quickly conjured up an image.

"Did you promise him something?"

President Ota's face turned a little awkward.

"I just encouraged him, telling him there were still opportunities in the third-string team, and there were two practice games left."

"What did he say?"

"He said, if he didn't give up any runs in those practice games, would he have a chance to move up to the second-string?"

"And then?"

"I said, of course!"

The rest was already clear. It was obvious that Matsumoto had indeed not given up any runs in those two practice games.

But when it came to his handling of pitch selection and guidance, he clearly had no natural talent. Even though there were several promising pitchers in the third-string, how could he have guaranteed a shutout with them?

This left Superintendent Kataoka thoroughly puzzled.

"Are there any records of those games?"

"There are!"

"Bring them to me..."

Superintendent Kataoka suddenly realized that Matsumoto, the boy under his command, might not be as simple as he appeared on the surface.

…