It was only now that he suddenly remembered. They had only allowed a runner on base a handful of times during this whole tournament, none of which had tried to steal bases.
The revelation hit him like a ton of bricks. Usually this was something that pitchers would get used to over time, but it seemed that Kazuhiro lacked that experience because his pitching was too good for his age.
He could imagine the kid in middle school pitching against those younger than him. There was no way that they would be able to hit his pitches consistently.
"Ahem. How about you just ignore the runners on base for now. Let's focus only on the guys in front of you okay?" Shinji said after a while.
While it was not ideal, he couldn't exactly teach Kazuhiro what to do with runners on base in this exact moment. Therefore it would be better to just put their attention on facing the batters directly.
"Okay, I can do that." Kazhuiro said after a moment.
Shinji breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Just focus on my glove okay?" He reiterated, patting the kid on the shoulder.
Kazuhiro nodded. The roles were reversed from the first innings now, with no outs and a runner on base, they were in a dangerous position.
Shinji tried to calm himself down a little. This was where his experience would need to rear its head if they wanted to stem the bleeding.
His eyes turned to Yuta, the opposing catcher. The guy was a solid player who did plenty of research on who he was up against, using previous data to formulate strategies in advance.
'I don't think we'll be able to trap him easily.' He thought.
After a moment, he made his decision.
WHOOSH
"Strike."
'Good good!'
"Nice pitch."
Yuta felt a little incredulous at the moment. He had thought that seeing a freak like Ken appear amongst the first years was crazy enough, yet here was another exceptional pitcher in the same grade.
Despite being the same age and position, the two were rather different.
While Kazuhiro felt wild and unpolished, Ken was almost like a sharp and dangerous spear who had seen years of bloodshed on the battlefield.
His calm and immovable demeanor mixed with the threat of lethality painted a grand picture upon the mound, intimidating those who dare face his pitches.
Even Yuta who was forced to catch these pitches everyday, couldn't help but feel in awe.
The next pitch came barreling through the air on an inside course.
'Sorry kid, you're a little early to match up to him.'
Yuta's eyes widened and his body moved, digging his heel in and twisting his body to generate as much torque as possible.
DONG!
The sound of the metal bat chopping at the ball reverberated in everyone's ears, closely followed by an immense cheer from the crowd.
"NICE!"
The ball was struck with intent, flying over the left outfielders outstretched arm and onto the field where it rolled to the fence.
Naoki who was on second base managed to easily reach home before the throw was sent back from the outfield, putting Yokohama up 3-1.
Yuta stood proudly on 2nd base, having secured another run for the team, he felt quite pleased with himself.
Yuki, the right outfielder was up to bat next. While he was mostly a forgotten player in the team, he had solid fundamentals and was well versed in the rules of baseball down to the nitty gritty.
Ken knew this because he was the only player he'd seen with a Game Intelligence in the S grade.
Unfortunately, he didn't fare as well as the others and was promptly struck out after only 3 pitches. He was a little downcast, but he still sent a smile to Ken who was up to bat next.
Since he had replaced Akira in the lineup, he was stuck very last in the batting order. Yet he wasn't too concerned. He wasn't planning on letting Shuei get any more runs on the board after all.
The moment he stepped onto the field, he felt the intense gaze of Carlos lock onto him from his position at 3rd base. His curly brown hair hidden beneath his cap and wild eyes that radiated an unspoken challenge made him look exotic.
Yet Ken didn't give him the satisfaction of looking his way.
Right now he only had one thing in mind, and that was to hit the ball out of the park.
Kazuhiro's face fell when he saw Ken walking up to the batters box. His presence couldn't have come at a worse time, especially since he'd given up 3 runs already this innings with no outs.
The last time they faced each other, Ken had hit a home run after only seeing 3 pitches. He'd done it with such ease that Kazuhiro had suffered quite a mental setback.
But instead of continuing to mope, a burning determination began to flicker inside of him. He wanted to overcome the player standing in front of him, beating him in a one on one duel.
Shinji was debating calling another time out in order to chat to his teammate on the mound, however he saw the expression on his face and quickly changed his mind.
'He's ready…'
Ken rolled his shoulders and tapped the tip of his boots with his bat before getting into his batting stance. The stance was orthodox, one that was commonly seen from a lot of professionals.
The form was taught by his father, someone who had great knowledge of the pro scene.
Despite the intimidating aura coming from Ken in the batters box, Kazuhiro didn't falter. If anything, the burning sensation inside of him was telling him to devour his foe, drowning him in a blaze of glory.
Kazu felt his body move on its own, his mind becoming numb. It was as if he was just a spectator, watching from above as he performed the best pitch of his career.
WHOOSH
Ken's eyes widened as he saw the ball come towards him like a bullet. The course of the ball drifted away from him, yet it was not a curveball.
PAH
He resisted the urge to whistle in appreciation at the splendid pitch thrown his way. By his estimation, it was at least on par with the Amateur difficulty pitcher in the System's Image Training facility.
'Look's like he's leveled up.'