Slugger

Chapter 13

§Alex's PoV§

It was the day after the game and I was practicing my batting. It was quite hot out, to be honest. I wish I could've been in the bullpen right now. I was dying from the heat. Who knew there was a place hotter than America. >.< That was suppose to be a Hetalia joke... never mind.

"Ne! Coach-San!" I say as cutely as possible, for preventing to be a boy. "Can I pitch now~"  He gives me a weird look.

"Nice ball, Tanba-San!"

I look over to see Miyuki and Tanba pitching. I also see Nori off to the side watching with the other catcher. I'm sorry I can't remember everyone's names. I'm not a genius.

"Moore! Go run with Furuya! It's a lot hotter in Japan than America!" Coach declined my wish. I sigh and start to run with Furuya.   "Furuya, here, I think you need this. Your sweating like a pig in the oven." I say while hanging him a towel. He nodded a thanks and took it. I decide to run ahead because if I kept going at that pace I would've never been able to raise my stamina.

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"Chris-Senpai! I wanna pitch." I wine will walking towards him and Eijun.

"Okay. Fine. I'll meet you in the bullpen with Furuya. Make sure you warm up your shoulder!"

"YATA! I get to pitch!" I said while giving him a slight hug and running off.

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Today's the day we face Murata East! I'm so excited but I don't get to pitch. Coach decide it would be best to save me for the quarterfinals. I was weeping for most of the night. I really wanted to pitch today too!

So far it's 5-0, Seido in the lead. I wasn't really paying attention while being on the field. Furuya was going all and I didn't feel the need to...

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"Take a good look at Akikawa Academy's pitcher. He has something you guys don't have, except for Alex." Miyuki commented. Right now we are watch to see our next opponent.

"An exchange student from Tawian, Shinshin-Yeung, second year." Chris said. "He originally came to learn Japanese, but he was introduced to Japanese baseball and fell in love with it. He stays later than anyone at practice, and studies more than anyone to make Japanese baseball his own. He has hunger. He has that untouchable aura and amazing control from his everyday practice. People call him... Clockwork."

I watch as this Shun guy pitches. It's amazing. He went to a high ball, that almost hit the batter, to the lower outside. Then he threw another lower outside pitch two more time, and the second time the batter swung for it and got out.

"3-0. They defend their early-game runs. After they scored, the fielders started playing differently. It just shows how much faith the team had in him." Chris commented

"The game's three days from now, on a Wednesday. And this one isn't going to be easy." Jun said. It struck me. I haven't been doing much for the team... maybe I should start doing some research... We head back to Seido so Chris can explain and give up info.

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"Their ace, Yeung, doesn't throw many breaking balls, but he's throw curveballs and forkballs to get the strikes. His speed it around 130 km/h, but what we need to worry about is the clockwork-like control. From in-high to out-low, out-high to in-low. He uses the diagonal very well to keep the batters guessing. He'll probably never throw anything near the middle. The key to beating him will be how well you can stick to your swings without being tossed about by his pitching to the corners."