Diamond No Ace: The Strongest Hitter

Chapter 78: Sawamura's "Performance"

The moment rewinds to when Sendo hit the ball!

"Bang!"

This unprecedented hit came out of nowhere.

"Yosha!!!" In that instant, Akagi's bench exploded with excitement!

A few seconds later, the ball hit the fence and bounced back onto the field.

"Center fielder, hurry up!" shouted Sakura's catcher urgently.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What kind of speed is this?" As he watched a certain someone on base, he had only one thought in mind.

Before the ball even landed, Sendo had already reached first base and was sprinting toward second.

By the time the center fielder caught the ball and turned, Sendo was nearly at second base.

The center fielder quickly threw it straight to third base, but as she stepped up to make the throw, Sendo stopped suddenly at second base… and stayed there.

With that speed, he could've definitely made it to third.

But he just stopped… like that.

"Smack!"

The ball was thrown to third, leaving Sakura's players momentarily stunned, though the third baseman dutifully tossed the ball to the second baseman, who tagged Sendo as a formality.

The second baseman was left bewildered, as were several of Sakura's players, all with blank expressions.

The series of events was so dramatic—the surprise of the hit, then his shocking speed.

While others might cover a little over two bases, he covered three—but… despite being able to safely reach third, he slowed down and stayed at second.

"Ahhh!!!" It was only then that Sawamura snapped out of it, clutching his head and groaning.

"What the heck are you doing, Sendo?! Get to third base! You could've made it easily!" Sawamura yelled as he tried to rush out. Everyone quickly jumped from the bench, running over to the batter's area to hold him back.

"Let me go! I'm gonna teach him a lesson!"

"Ei-chan, Sen-chan must have his reasons!" A chaotic mess ensued as the group tried to calm Sawamura down.

Meanwhile, Sendo acted as though he hadn't heard a thing, ignoring Sawamura's outburst.

At the same time, a just-now recovering Ozawa looked back and saw the scene of Sendo stopping.

She had just acknowledged Sendou's strength with this hit and regained her focus, but seeing this new scene, she snapped again.

"You jerk! Do you think you're mocking me?" she fumed, letting her anger show on the pitcher's mound.

The scene started looking like an all-out brawl.

"Ei-chan! Don't get all stubborn now. It's almost your turn to bat!"

"Yeah! Yeah!"

"He's the one who's out of line!"

"But you can't beat him anyway!"

"Still, I'm going to teach him a lesson! Let me go!"

Several minutes later, Akagi's players finally managed to restrain Sawamura, coaxing him to head to the batter's box.

"Whew!" After all this commotion, Akagi's team finally sighed in relief, exchanging wry smiles—this scene felt like a performance, almost a comedy.

However,

"Damn it! Do you think you're looking down on me?! Damn it! Damn it!"

The hot-tempered young woman was still venting her frustration.

"Look, Ei-chan! Their pitcher is visibly agitated; Sen-chan must have noticed and set up a psychological trap!" said Ohno, who'd been watching over Sawamura, taking the chance to plant this thought.

"Is that so?" Sawamura asked, looking dazed and innocent.

"Definitely!"

"Alright! I'll take advantage of this and score!" he declared, setting off with his usual exaggerated gait.

With Akagi's side under control, Sakura's ace pitcher continued to rage on the mound.

"What kind of game is this turning into?" Wakana sighed, brushing her forehead.

But Ozawa, seasoned as a college player, soon managed to regain her composure.

A few minutes later, she glared at Sendo with a face full of fury, then shifted her gaze to Sawamura in the batter's box.

Sendo, seeing her glare, was a bit puzzled, but it didn't stop him from leading off the base—and quite audaciously, by over six meters.

"Captain Ozawa!" The second baseman called out, noticing Sendo's exaggerated lead.

"Huh? This jerk!" Ozawa threw the ball his way as soon as she turned and saw how far he'd gone!

But Sendo, reacting the moment she started her throw and moving quickly, didn't even need to slide to get back to second base safely, thanks to his incredible speed (from his perspective, at least).

"This guy!"

"Smack!"

"This guy!"

"Smack!"

"Jerk!"

"Smack!"

"Ozawa, focus on the batter!" The catcher quickly advised, seeing Ozawa and Sendo caught up in a back-and-forth.

To her, it was clear Sendo was doing this on purpose.

Although five meters is generally the limit for trained baserunners, Sendo's remarkable reaction time and acceleration meant that, even if his baserunning technique wasn't perfect, he could effortlessly take a seven-meter lead against her all-girls team.

And indeed, every time he retreated to base, he didn't even need to slide back.

Ozawa heard her teammate's reminder, turned her focus back to the batter, while Sendo stayed at a lead of about six meters, maybe a bit more.

At that moment, Sendo gave Sawamura a signal!

"As I thought, Sendo's trying to rile up this pitcher to create a chance for me!" Sawamura thought, misinterpreting the previous back-and-forth.

"Ha ha! Watch me hit big and send you home!" he thought proudly, ignoring that he was down by two strikes.

At the same time, Sawamura was completely unaware that Ozawa, watching him, was teetering on the edge of rage, channeling all her previous frustration onto him.

"You arrogant fool! Don't get cocky!" With all her anger towards Sendo, she threw a high-quality pitch!

"Yosha!"

Smack!

"Strike!"

"Looks like she really is focused on the batter now," Sendo thought, observing the scene.

After calculating a bit in his head, Sendo inched further from the base unnoticed, taking advantage of his habit of looking around, which others mistook as a lack of focus.

"What a lousy swing… how is he the fifth batter? But, this kid seems just as emotional as our ace. Letting him swing freely is probably a way to cater to his feelings. Indeed, aces need to be handled carefully," the catcher thought, sizing up Sawamura's swing.

"If that's the case, I'll suppress him with fastballs! And I have a feeling that baserunner might steal during this at-bat. Even though it's tough for Ozawa and me to catch him, we can't lose our resolve!"

The second pitch…

"Steal!" Sendo's sharp reflexes allowed him to instantly recognize the pitcher's motion, enabling him to start faster than any other runner.

"Ah…! Yosha!" Sawamura gave himself some sound effects, swinging wildly again, this time so dramatically that he nearly lost his grip on the bat.

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