Ace of Diamond: Return of the Pitcher

"Do I have a chance to play too?"

When Asada asked this question, Sawamura was left stunned.

He instinctively wanted to say yes, but before he could say anything, Sawamura abruptly stopped himself.

Originally, according to Sawamura's thinking, since it was an Orientation Game, all the freshmen should naturally have the chance to play. However, the reality was quite different. This year's freshmen were simply too numerous—there were more of them than all the Senpais combined.

No matter how hard the Orientation Game was, it would only last for nine innings, maybe twelve at most. Coach Kataoka certainly couldn't swap out seven or eight players in just one inning, right?

Changing the lineup in a single inning wouldn't reveal much. It would at least take three innings to get a sense of the players...

In that case, only about half of the 60+ freshmen would really get the chance to play.

'Asada might not even be able to seize that opportunity.'

Sawamura couldn't help but wonder what criteria Coach Kataoka and coach Ochiai were using to select players.

These thoughts flashed through his mind, but then he shook his head, brushing them aside.

"Don't worry, your efforts are being seen by the coaches."

When Sawamura said this, he really just wanted to be polite with no other intentions.

"Really?" Asada looked at him, his face full of hope.

This made things a bit awkward.

Sawamura's expression stiffened, but he still nodded.

"Of course, it's true!"

A month had passed since the start of the school year. Asada, who had once thought he would be overwhelmed, had gradually adapted to the training pace of the Seidou High School baseball club.

Although it was still a bit hard to eat three big bowls of rice, but he stayed later than others to finish his meal completely.

Other aspects had improved significantly.

For example, sleeping. When Asada first arrived, he couldn't sleep soundly. A slight noise would wake him up immediately.

But now, he occasionally overslept.

Although oversleeping wasn't a good sign, it showed that the young man had become more accustomed to the club routine.

He hoped Coach Kataoka would really open his eyes and see the effort Asada was putting in.

When Sawamura thought about this, he himself couldn't entirely believe it.

Among this batch of freshmen, the only outstanding pitcher was Nishiyama, but he wasn't the only one with strength...

There were more than 60 freshmen, and only about a dozen were pitchers.

'Asada hadn't really stood out among these freshmen pitchers.'

Sawamura thought about this as he went to sleep.

'Well, the guys at the second and third string will go all out on the pitchers, so maybe there is a chance.' This was his thought as he drifted to sleep.

The night passed without incident, and the next day was the orientation game.

The players of both teams stayed in their respective dugouts.

This caught the attention of the alumni and fans who had come to watch Seidou High School's practice.

"Wow, this is amazing."

"There's no announcement of a game, but are they really starting the Orientation Match now?"

"What's the purpose of holding the orientation game now?"

"If you want to know the purpose, I'm afraid you'll have to ask Coach Kataoka!"

"But speaking of which, I heard this year's freshmen have a lot of great prospects."

"The senpais' fighting spirit will help them realize what high school baseball is really about."

"Maybe, especially considering last year…"

When the topic of last year came up, everyone fell silent.

"No, last year's situation was a once-in-a-hundred-year occurrence."

Finally, everyone shook their heads.

While it was exciting to see the talented newcomers, it also felt a little uncomfortable for the second and third-year students to be crushed by them.

The main players of Seidou's first string also had a rare half-day off.

With a break from training, everyone in the first string came to the scene to see the game confidently!

"By the way, where's that little brat Sawamura?"

Kuramochi pouted and kept searching, but he couldn't find Sawamura anywhere.

"I don't know, maybe he's hiding somewhere!" Miyuki said nonchalantly.

"No matter how many promising newcomers there are, his position will never be threatened. It's really enviable!" Maezono said with emotion.

As soon as he finished speaking, both Miyuki and Kuramochi fell silent.

Not just Sawamura, but also their positions weren't threatened. Once Maezono said this, the conversation came to a stop.

After all, Maezono's position had genuinely been impacted.

Yuuki Masashi, Nishimura!

Both of them could play first base and performed well.

On the other side, Kanemaru was also suggesting to his friend Toujou.

"Do you want to watch the orientation game together?"

Toujou looked up at the indoor practice field, where the sound of bats hitting balls still echoed.

He didn't immediately answer Kanemaru's question but instead asked, "Have you seen Kominato's practice?"

"I've seen it. That guy is probably trying to improve his swing speed."

Toujou nodded.

The freshmen had caused some impact on the positions of the main roster players, except for a few, like Sawamura and Miyuki. Others were facing a considerable challenge.

This included Toujou and Kominato.

"We're not that stable at our positions yet…"

"It's rare for that guy to be competitive!"

"Last year, we were overshadowed by the Senpais, and we don't know what those guys will do this year."

In the end, neither Kanemaru nor Toujou showed up.

The pressure they faced was far greater than that of the average player.

To avoid being replaced by freshmen, they knew they had to work even harder and not waste a single moment of practice time.

"What about Sawamura? I haven't seen him since class ended!" Kanemaru said suspiciously.

Toujou shook his head.

Sawamura was like a shining light in Seidou's baseball club.

When he was around, everyone habitually focused their attention on him. After a long time of this, it felt strange not to see him anywhere.

Sawamura was also there, but they weren't looking at the right place.

The problem is that Sawamura didn't consider it the right place for him.

'Damn Sunglasses!!'

At this very moment, Sawamura, who was being missed by everyone, felt that his life was really tough.

He had been drafted as a leader and was assigned the role of being the acting coach of the Senpai team!

When he first received this task, Sawamura shook his head vigorously.

"It's not good to go this hard on the freshmen!"

President Ota had initially worried that the Senpai players lacked combat power, but he didn't expect Coach Kataoka to deploy such a big weapon right away.

This was tricky. Not only did it kill other pitchers' chances to play, but it also gave no hope to the freshmen.

Even Sawamura, whose pitching was restricted, was still beyond the reach of these freshmen players.

"He's is just the acting coach. He won't play easily."

Coach Kataoka explained.

Upon hearing this, Sawamura rolled his eyes.

He wasn't even trying to hide it. 'Not easy' to play doesn't mean 'won't play'.

'What was going on in Coach Kataoka's mind?'

And so it happened.

Sawamura led the Senpais team and sat in the dugout for the Senpais.

At first, since he wore a hat and was sitting in the corner, no one really noticed.

It wasn't until Coach Kataoka said the two teams should send someone to decide who would start first that everyone realized where he was.

"Sawamura!"

One sharp-eyed spectator widened his eyes in surprise.

"What? Where?"

Half of the people who came to watch Seidou's training had come specifically to see Sawamura. They didn't expect the orientation match today. Although they hadn't seen Sawamura, they still felt it was worth attending.

Now, when they heard Sawamura's name, they were naturally curious.

They looked around and then saw Sawamura Eijun sitting with the senpai players.

Everyone was shocked.

"Coach Kataoka is up to something!"

At that point, the news spread quickly among the other first-string players who had come to watch.

People who hadn't planned to watch the orientation match suddenly came rushing in.

Watching the 'Demon King' bully his Kohais, how could they not be interested?

"Last year, the team's ace, Tanba-senpai, had also played a similar role. Now it was Eijun's turn!"

The audience and Senpais were all thrilled, but the freshmen looked visibly uneasy.

Facing the vicious Senpais, it felt like a group of innocent lambs standing in front of a pack of hungry wolves.

Now, that feeling was even stronger, especially since there was a big wolf among the wolves.

The coin toss decided that the Senpais would bat first.

The freshmen were now recommending the players take the field first.

At the start, it was definitely not ideal to send out all the strongest players, so they had to observe the situation from the dugout.

But if the players they sent out were too weak, that would be a problem too.

So they had to pick players from the second tier of strength among the freshmen.

Soon, these players were gathered together.

Except for Kagami, who would bat fourth, and Kuki, who would pitch.

The other players were all from the second tier.

During this process, Coach Kataoka never said a word. The players chose on their own…

From this, it was clear that the quality of this year's freshmen was quite high.

Especially since they had their leaders.

Yui Kaoru, Okumura Koushuu.

Being able to pick the lineup so quickly was thanks to their contributions.

…