Ace of Diamond: Return of the Pitcher

WHRROOSH!

The baseball shot out like a war arrow from a siege bow.

Carrying an aura of destruction, it fiercely rushed toward the opponent.

The Cuban player in the Batter's Box, upon seeing the ball for the first time, immediately wanted to counter, but he realized he couldn't.

He tried to swing the bat!

But before he could even make the swing, he saw that the small baseball had already passed through the strike zone and was caught by the catcher's Mitt.

SNAP!

"STRIKE!"

In that instant, it felt as though time itself had changed.

The crowd in the stands, who had come specifically from Japan to watch the game, were now thrilled and excited.

It was simply exhilarating!

They didn't even know why they felt so excited.

But every time they watched Sawamura pitch, they experienced an indescribable feeling of exhilaration.

Whether they were fans of the Seidou High School baseball team before or supporters of Japan team now.

They realized that as long as Sawamura was their star, that star would never disappoint them.

He always managed to stand tall in crucial moments and turn the tide of the game.

Just like now, even against the crazily provocative Cuban team.

Sawamura's performance remained as steady as ever.

This was a rare thing, extremely rare.

As an important player on the team, especially as the ace pitcher, having a big heart was a must.

Whether in school baseball or in a future professional career.

If a pitcher doesn't have a heart big enough, it would be difficult for them to face challenges from powerful opponents in the future.

It's often said that there's always someone better, and the sky is full of stars.

The fans at the scene didn't truly know what a top-tier player was supposed to be like.

But when they saw Sawamura now, they couldn't help but think that perhaps Sawamura was the perfect embodiment of the world's top pitcher.

As long as they held this big Ace, no matter what tricks the Cuban team pulled, the supporters of Japan firmly believed that in the end, they would win!

Sawamura's performance also lived up to the fans' expectations. He continued to throw pitches against the Cuban team's leadoff hitter.

At first, it was a super-fast fastball. The opponent didn't even have time to react, and that small baseball had already passed through the strike zone and landed in the catcher's Mitt.

Next came the second pitch. Sawamura threw a completely opposite change-up.

The huge difference in speed directly stunned the Cuban batter.

He stood there dumbfounded, filled with endless despair.

He had just been affected by Sawamura's first pitch.

Seeing the baseball come at him, he swung his bat without hesitation.

Due to the forceful swing, after completing the swing, his body couldn't stand still and swayed a few times. It was this brief moment of swaying that made him miss a stunning shot.

And this time, he had to wait until his swing was fully completed.

The small baseball didn't come at him!

What was going on?

The batter's mind was filled with confusion.

At this point, his brain had completely gone blank. He could tell that the pitch was a change-up, had he been a bit more composed.

While he was still processing this, Sawamura threw his third pitch, a sharp one high on the inside corner.

Already a bit dazed, the batter had no answer to this tricky pitch that appeared out of nowhere.

He barely made a swing to respond but didn't make contact.

And then, he was struck out!

However, his strikeout was different from a usual strikeout.

He didn't completely refrain from swinging during the strikeout process.

He still tried to swing the bat whenever the opportunity arose.

Although he knew that the chances of hitting the ball were small, he still decided to do it.

On one hand, it was to show their unyielding fighting spirit.

On the other hand, it was because of a slight hope.

Hitting the ball is a mix of skill and luck.

If a blind cat happens to catch a dead mouse, and his bat accidentally makes contact with the baseball, and it flies to the outfield, the joy would be indescribable.

For the Cuban players, the method to restore their morale was very simple – they just needed one point.

As long as they could score a point from the great demon Sawamura, the whole team's momentum would undergo a massive shift.

The reason the Cuban players lacked confidence was simple.

Until now, they had not figured out how to hit Sawamura's pitches.

Whether it was during their research or throughout today's matchup, the Cuban players had deeply realized Sawamura's strength.

This guy was like a non-human, using some sort of cheat!

The Cuban players, during the match, had also been evolving.

They gradually gathered more intel on Sawamura's pitching style.

This means that the Cuban team wasn't doing anything during this time.

They had tried hard to get hits and score runs off Sawamura, and they had made a lot of effort. Unfortunately, every time they made progress, they would look back at Sawamura and realize that he wasn't the same Sawamura as before.

The Sawamura had leveled up his game again.

Even the Cuban players, no matter how unreliable they were, wouldn't dare make such bold guesses. The only reasonable explanation for the current situation was that, during their previous encounters with Sawamura, he had been holding back.

In other words, Sawamura hadn't been using his full power. He had been reserving his strength while battling the Cuban players. That was why, after the Cuban players improved, they could finally face Sawamura with a new approach, revealing even more of his power.

The Cuban team's Coach in the dugout scratched his head in agony.

He thought his players were doing well, but compared to Sawamura, they were like children.

The gap was huge!

If it were just this, the Cuban coach wouldn't have been so tortured.

Facing a powerful opponent wasn't something the Cuban team could understand or accept. Their players were very willing to accept challenges, especially when playing against a formidable opponent. They viewed such games as opportunities to improve themselves.

But those opponents had limits.

Even though they were as strong as monsters, from the Cuban team's perspective, such opponents might not be as difficult to defeat as everyone imagined.

Because their strength had a cap. The Cuban players could unite and evolve, and eventually, they would surpass their opponents.

But when they faced Sawamura, it was completely different.

During the match, the Cuban players were shocked to find that they had no idea where Sawamura's limit was.

Every time they thought they had discovered part of Sawamura's limit, they would immediately be slapped in the face.

Sawamura demonstrated with his actions that he had no limits.

Every time the Cuban players thought they had found a good solution, Sawamura immediately countered with an even better pitch, crushing them.

Not by solving their strategy with a pitch, but by using an even more sophisticated, sharper, and more incomprehensible pitch to crush them.

Not giving the opponent any chance to breathe, directly crushing them with overwhelming force.

"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!!"

"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!!!"

Just like that, Sawamura cleanly secured three strikeouts.

In the stands, the fans were in awe.

Before, they had only heard the legends that Sawamura was the Last Boss. In Japan, whether in middle school or high school, he had crushed all opponents with incredibly strong abilities, demonstrating power far beyond his peers.

That's why he was known as the Last Boss, the Great Demon King.

Before, whether it was the fans of the Taiwan team or fans from other countries, they all thought the reports about Sawamura were exaggerated.

They had a deeply ingrained impression that Japanese media was very good at embellishing stories, and their promotions were full of a "chuunibyou" vibe.

So, even though Japanese media had praised Sawamura to the sky, fans from other countries were skeptical.

Sawamura was strong, there was no doubt about that.

But was he really as strong as the media said? That was worth questioning.

From their perspective, it didn't seem like he was that strong.

Because when Japanese media praised Sawamura, they used too many incredible and even hard-to-accept terms.

It felt less like describing a person and more like describing a Manga protagonist.

How could an ordinary human do such a thing?

But now, after seeing Sawamura pitch live, whether it was the fans of the Taiwan team or baseball fans from all over the world watching through TV and live-streaming platforms, they all deeply realized that they had misjudged Japanese media.

The media wasn't exaggerating about Sawamura at all.

They were reporting the facts. Sawamura had truly achieved things beyond their imagination, and today's game was proof of that.

The Cuban team's players were definitely not weak. Their overall strength was strong, and their batters were high-level, but even such a strong team had no hope of fighting back against Sawamura.

They couldn't see any hope of a counterattack!

This was Sawamura's strength, a power that deeply intimidated others. After seeing this, Sawamura, both the Cuban coach and the players grew much more cautious.

By this point, especially after the second round of confrontations, the Cuban players had clearly realized that their ambition to take hits and score runs from Sawamura was almost impossible to achieve in the short term.

This wasn't a case of the Cuban players underestimating themselves.

It was simply a reasonable assessment of the gap between the two teams.

They were not Sawamura's match. This gap could not be bridged in such a short time.

Could the Cuban team still win?

There was no chance left!

The last shred of faith supporting the Cuban team had been shattered during the second round of confrontations with Sawamura.

They were completely crushed.

It was clear now that they had no hope left, not even a tiny bit.

At this point, the Cuban players' morale had hit rock bottom.

In Japan team's dugout, Sawamura seriously looked around at his teammates and said almost word by word:

"Our opportunity!"

Just these two words, not a single word more.

He was afraid that if he said more, it would hurt the self-esteem of other players. If that happened, they would truly suffer.

Fortunately, they were all smart, and without further explanation from Sawamura, they understood what he meant.

The Cuban team was now on the brink of despair.

If they wanted to crush their opponent completely, there was no better opportunity than right now.

They absolutely couldn't show mercy. Once every player on Japan team understood this, their attack was inevitable.

In the next inning, Japan team nearly used everything in their power to attack the Cuban team.

Like a torrential downpour of pear blossoms.

In a very short time, they used all their offensive methods.

...

T/N: That's it for today.

As always, Thank you all for reading!

Have a good day!

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