Chapter 19: CHAPTER 19
"The Fall tournament selection and the final selection in summer tournament is the most important one, compared to those two this spring tournament doesn't mean as much."
Coach kataoka said to us. All of us on first string is currently surrounding him as we listened to his instructions.
"But today opponent is ichidaisan whom we lost in last fall tournament! We are going to take our revenge in this game so we are not holding back today!"
"YES SIR!" We replied.
Coach kataoka instructed as we are about to head out for the quarterfinal game for the spring tournament today. Coach hasn't really let me play during the entire spring tournament as we really haven't face a strong opponent till now but it's different story today so who knows what's going to happen later.
"Let's do it as usual guys"
THIRD PERSON'S POV
As kataoka instructed the seido first string team formed a circle in the field holding each others shoulders while the 3rd year Captain Yuki Tetsuya is in the center alone.
"WHO ARE WE?!" The caption shouted.
"THE KING SEIDO!" Jiro and all of the first string answered back shouting at the top of their lungs as they continue the baseball team phrase
"WHO SWEATS MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE?!"
"SEIDO!"
"WHO SHED MORE TEARS THAN ANYONE ELSE?!"
"SEIDO!"
"THE ONE WHO LOVE BASEBALL THAN ANYONE ELSE!?"
"SEIDO!"
"ARE YOU READY TO FIGHT!?"
"OOOO"
"With our school pride in our hearts, we aim for just one thing! Winning the nationals!"
"LET'S GO!"
"OOOOOOO" Everyone at first string shouted pouring their hearts out while pointing their finger at the sky.
When the others heard the chants and shouts of the first string they can't help but shuddered at the sight. They took hope to join the group doing the seido baseball team chant.
The first years that heard the chants of the first string is really fired up.
The first years begin heading out to ride the school bus now and Mr. Oota the assistant coach of team instructed that the ones who want to watch the game have to board the bus now.
When the first string pass by Kuramochi and masuko notice their first year roommate looking at them.
"Yo what's up, you're not going to watch us play?"
"No, I'll stay behi-" before sawamura could finish his sentence, a boy with brown and blue eyes interrupted him.
"No, You'll go with us. I've already saw Haruichi and others board the bus, Furuya is also with them as I've already instructed Kanemaru to get the guy to make sure he attends so you too go and enter the bus now" Jiro stated looking at sawamura seriously.
"WHATT?! I, I want to do some training while is everyone is away Jiro-san. Everyone is so much better than me so I need to work harder" sawamura said politely to Jiro.
"Good to know that you know you're very lacking right now, but that's the reason why you need to watch this game. See for yourself the level of baseball you need to reach to stand with us yourself." Jiro once again explained to sawamura, 'This guy needs to realize that watching the first string practice and watching the first string firsthand in a serious match is two completely different thing, the intensity of a real match is different from practice after all'
Sawamura shut up for a moment and just nods at Jiro. He respects Jiro as he's the only first year in the first string so far and above all else he knows that Jiro is trying to help him.
"Okay" sawamura nods with determination in his eyes. 'Good he understands me' Jiro thought.
"GUYYSS! WAIT FOR ME, I CHANGED MY MIND I'M COMING" Sawamura said shouting while running towards the bus where there friends is.
"Shut up!" Kuramochi shouted to the running loudmouth kohai of his.
Miyuki just watched everything unfolds and just smiled walking near Jiro
"Good thing you've managed to convince that stubborn guy" The catcher said smiling
"This game is helpful for them just by observing, they could pick up a thing or two from it" Jiro plainly said who started walking again towards the bus where the other regulars boarded.
"Yhahaha that guy acts more like a senior than you!" Kuramochi teased his friend
"Heheh I don't want to hear that coming from you" Miyuki said shaking his head off and also started walking towards their bus
"What do you mean by that!?" The green haired teen replied.
~ ~ ~ ~
-Tokyo Spring Tournament Quarterfinals-
Seido and Ichidaisan match have already begun and it's currently the 1st inning. Seido is on offensive first while ichidaisan is on the defensive end.
Ichidaisan ace already dropped some runs in the first innings as their team just got back from Koshien so they are still adjusting their line ups.
Once again they're in a dire situation as currently bases is loaded while the man who stood at the batters box is the 2nd year catcher of Seido, Miyuki Kazuya.
*DONGGG
A loud sound resonated at the field.
"Fl-Fly Out!"
"Whoa it went out!"
"That's the first time I've seen a home run out of the blue when bases is loaded"
The audience around reacted together with the cheering from Seido stands as Miyuki just hit a homerun while bases is loaded.
"Isn't he Miyuki Kazuya?"
"Amazing! He hit inside slider that far"
"He's still in his 2nd year right? And he's the sixth batter of their line up"
The amazement of the people from the play was still evident as they watched the boy with glasses on rounding the bases to reach home.
Seido assault didn't stop just with that as because of Miyuki, ichidaisan ace Manaka was unstable at the mound allowing seido to score more runs for the team. The first inning ended at Seido scoring 8 runs in total.
"Damn, Jiro's right. The game level of senpai's in first string is completely different compared to in practice." Sawamura muttered to himself.
While the surrounding audience is still in shock at the display of offensive prowess of Seido High. Ichidaisan managed to make it into best 8 during fall Koshien so the reaction is normal.
The game continued as Miyuki Kazuya displayed his abilities as a catcher reading the opponents play and preventing steals during their defense.
"ARGHH even that tanuki looks faster than me!?" Sawamura said as he saw Miyuki throws the ball to 2nd base tagging the runner out that attempted to steal.
"I want to play" Furuya said softly as he watched the game in the field.
Seido supporters have started shouting Seido's name as a chant as they continued watching.
'Tanba-senpai is really unstable on the mound eh?' Jiro said to himself as he continued to observe the game unfold and it's the 4th inning now where seido finally managed to get the last out.
From the big lead of 8 runs in the first inning, ichidaisan managed to close that gap by only 3 runs now. The score currently in the 4th inning is 11 - 8 still in favour of Seido. Tanba has been throwing many balls and has been shaking his head too many times in this game refusing Miyuki's call allowing ichidaisan to catch up to them.
The mood around the bench is gloomy as coach kataoka wasn't liking the performance of his 3rd year ace on the mound.
Kataoka stomp his foot at the railings of Seido's bench catching the teams attention especially Tanba as kataoka look him in the eye.
"You're asking for trouble throwing four balls like that giving them an easy chance to base, You're rejecting the calls of your catcher too" kataoka seriously said
"You're not going anywhere like that, are you tanba? What the hell have you been doing this last two years!?"
When Tanba heard what his coach said he just hung his head low, thinking about all of the mistakes he have done.
Kataoka roam his eyes around the bench as he intended to subbed Tanba out and was planning to let Kawakami his other pitcher finish the game but as he look at his students he notice a boy sitting there looking at him directly with a determined gaze visible on the boys brown and blue eyes.
'Sigh, I was planning to save this boy for summer tournament but let's not do that now. Maybe it's better to see how he fares in real matches' kataoka thought to himself as he still hasn't removed his gaze from Jiro's figure sitting at the back looking at him
"Tsubayoshi you're subbing in for Tanba this inning go warm your shoulders up" Kataoka finally said
Everyone is stunned when they heard that especially Tanba. The 3rd year consider the first year his biggest rival for the ace number after all.
What kataoka said sounds like music to Jiro's ears as he started grinning like crazy when he heard that.
"Finally." He said softly.
'A chance. A chance to finally claim that mound as mine' the boy thought
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
DoggoWrites
DoggoWrites Hello everyone! Enjoy the chapter, would upload another one later.
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