Yakushi High vs. Seidou High

Yakushi High vs. Seidou High
Result
Score	5-8
Winner	Seidou High
Match
Manga	Chapter 97-120
Anime	Episode 33-40
Tournament
Tournament	West Tokyo Tournament

The Yakushi High vs. Seidou High match is a high school baseball quarter final match, held during the 89th National High School Baseball Championship qualifiers. This match was held on July 27th.

Starting Members

• Seidou High

• 1st - Kuramochi Youichi
• 2nd - Kominato Ryosuke
• 3rd - Isashiki Jun
• 4th - Yūki Tetsuya
• 5th - Masuko Tōru
• 6th - Miyuki Kazuya
• 7th - Furuya Satoru
• 8th - Sakai Ichirou
• 9th - Shirasu Kenjirou

• Yakushi High School

• 1st - Todoroki Raichi
• 2nd - Akiba Kazuma
• 3rd - Mishima Yuuta
• 4th - Yamauchi
• 5th - Fukuda
• 6th - Mino
• 7th - Watanabe
• 8th - Kobayashi
• 9th - Ooda

Score

Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total
Yakushi High	1	0	0	0	0	3	0	1	0	5
Seidou High	3	1	1	0	0	1	0	2	x	8

Summary of the Game

Lead-off man.

Top of the first, Yakushi High is on the offensive. Furuya throws a high ball impressing Raichi. The second pitch is a low splitter but is a ball. Raichi is excited but is not swinging his bat. Raichi hits the third pitch and the ball goes straight to the fence in right-center field. Raichi gets to second base. Batting second for Yakushi is freshman, Akiba who swing and miss Furuya's splitter. Raizou grins in the dugout, for in truth, the team is aiming to only hit Furuya's fastballs. Akiba hits the high fastball next, and Raichi comes home. It is revealed that Raizou had put Raichi on top of the batting order to have Furuya throw from the stretch should Raichi get on base. Seidou's infielders gather on the mound. Miyuki tells Furuya that he'll be centering plays on the splitter but his fastball is still his best weapon.

The third batter, Mishima fouls the first pitch. Miyuki calls for the splitter next, and as Furuya throws, Akiba tries to steal a base. Miyuki sees the steal coming and brings his glove low enough to catch the ball quickly. He throws immediately to Kuramochi, for the tag. Sawamura is awed, getting startled when the crowd go crazy. In the bottom of the first, Seidou ties the score with Isashiki's pay-back fence hit. Yūki lines out to Raichi and Masuko hits a two-homer. Seidou is up by two. Miyuki, up sixth, hits straight to the pitcher. He still can’t hit without runners on base.

Top of the second, Raizou follows Akikawa's strategy to take down Furuya— attrition by repeated pitching. Miyuki realizes this and wants Furuya to prioritize control over power. Furuya throws from the stretch and is a strike. The next ball goes to first and Furuya covers as Yūki gets the ball. Furuya outs the next batter and Raizou think of breaking him at Raichi's second at bat.

In the bottom of the second, Furuya’s up to bat first. Wanting to make up for his pitching, he hits a home run and the score is now 1-4. Kataoka lets Furuya and Miyuki know that the switch will be done sooner. However, it will be done after Furuya squares off against Yakushi's eighth and ninth batters; then Furuya will be sent to the left field in place of Sakai. Sakai offers Furuya his outfielder’s glove, and on top of the third, Furuya pass the baton to Sawamura after the former complete Yakushi's first batting order.

Sawamura’s on the mound and will face the top of the lineup. Sawamura shouts out whatever is on his mind impressing Raichi. Raizou muses why couldn't the Akikawa batters hit Sawamura's pitch, correctly assuming that the pitch is a moving fastball. Miyuki calls for a ball for the first pitch to see how Raichi reacts. But Sawamura instead, throws a strike just to the inside.

The senpais run to the mound in case Sawamura fails to catch the ball.

Raichi gets to figure out what pitch it is and is excited. Miyuki is not pleased with Sawamura not following his lead and throws the ball back to Sawamura as hard as he could. Sawamura understands the message, and starts pitching to Miyuki’s mitt. Raichi observes another pitch, thinking Sawamura has potential. For the next pitch, Raichi hits a foul down the third base line. The count is two ball, one strike. The fourth pitch is an inside fastball that Raichi popped up straight to Sawamura. Ryosuke, Kuramochi, and Masuko runs up to the mound in case Sawamura doesn’t catch the ball, but Sawamura manage the catch. Raizou is not happy, and calls for Sanada who already left the dugout.

In the bottom of the third, with Ryosuke on second, Yūki hits a ball far into the outfield. Seidou scores another run and Yakushi is down by four runs. Raizou calls for a pitcher substitution, replacing Mino with their "true" ace, Sanada.

Yakushi's "true" ace walks on.

With Sanada on the mound, the mood of the Yakushi team changes. One out, runner on second, Masuko’s on the batter's box, and Miyuki’s on deck already reading Sanada. Sanada's first pitch is a shootball that hits Masuko's elbow guard, leading to a walk. Miyuki’s up to bat next with runners on first and second. Miyuki waits for an easy pitch and when he thought he gets one, the ball curves at the last minute and Miyuki hits into a double play to end the inning. Kataoka asks what the last pitch was and Miyuki thinks its a cutter.

At the bottom of the fourth, Furuya and Sawamura strike out. Chris thinks Sanada is a good pitcher but wonders why he has been a reliever the entire tournament. On the fifth, Sawamura and Sanada continue to square off in outing batters. Tanba goes to the mound and tells Kawakami not to lose focus as the tenth graders has already proven themselves.

The top of the sixth starts with the eighth batter for Yakushi and Raizou had given the instruction to get a man on base for Raichi. Sawamura throws the ball with Yakushi’s batter not quite ready yet and he pops the ball. Ryosuke and Yūki try to catch the fly but fails and the batter gets on base. The next batter bunts, advancing the runner to second.

A shaken Sawamura after Raichi's two-homer.

With no out and a runner on second, Raichi is once again at-bat.The players wait for Kataoka's orders. Haruichi goes to the mound to let Sawamura know he gets to stay on the mound. He face again, but Raichi waits for a specific pitch this time. Sawamura throws high and inside, Raichi swings his bat and the ball just goes over the left field fence, bringing in two runs. Miyuki apologizes to Sawamura for the wrong lead while the team cheer Sawamura on, but Sawamura is shaken. Raizou grins, noticing Sawamura's lost his energy.

Seidou’s two runs up, but Sawamura's lost his rhythm. He walks Akiba on four balls. Kataoka calls for a pitcher change. Yakushi scores another run and the audience cheer them. Kawakami gives up a line drive to the third base line, but Masuko brings it in with a great catch and then gets the third base runner out. Bottom of the sixth, Yūki hits a long ball to left field, putting Seidou up by two runs again. Chris deduce that Sanada probably has endurance problems making him unable to start in games. Yakushi's players show their concern to Sanada, but Sanada is quick to ease their worries with his optimism. Sawamura observes Sanada, remembering what Chris had told him about handling things after a homerun.

Kawakami avoids a duel with Raichi.

It is revealed that Sanada has injured his left calf last spring, that has not yet fully healed. Despite this, he gives his best for the team and Raizou knows how big his existence is to Yakushi. Raizou tell his players to turn the game around in the eighth. Top of the eighth, Kawakami walks Raichi on four balls, to the latter's obvious disappointment. The next batter, Akiba shows to bunt, but Raichi try to steal a base, and Akiba moves back to hit. The ball moves and the batter misses, but Miyuki is just a little too slow getting the ball to second. Raichi just barely makes it to second. Akiba pulled the third pitch by force and Raichi advance to third.

Batting third is Mishima. One out, and a runner on third. Sawamura’s normal enthusiasm is back and cheers Kawakami on. The first two pitches go foul and quickly the batter’s cornered. Miyuki calls a slider low, but Mishima hit an RBI to the center field. Raichi goes home and Seidou’s only up one now with the cleanup hitter and captain up to bat. He hits the first pitch and Isashiki dives for the long ball but is just a little late to pick off the batter at first.

The five hole batter gets a ball past first base into shallow right field and Mishima advances to third. Two outs and runners on first and third, batting sixth is Sanada. Knowing that this could be the turning point of the game, Kataoka calls for a pitcher substitution.

Tanba makes his first appearance in the tournament.

Tanba inherits runners on first and third and the ace pitcher and six-hole batter is up next. Miyuki warns that the Yakushi hitters swing from the first throw, and they need to be careful on the first pitch. Miyuki calls for a fastball on the all-important first pitch. He just wants to intimidate the batter, no matter if it’s a ball or not. Miyuki calls for a fastball to the outside but Tanba throws to the inside, and the ball goes high behind the batter, foul. After two throws, Sanada is cornered. The third ball is a curveball, but it goes wild. Miyuki just barely stops it with his right hand, stopping the third base runner. The fourth ball goes nearly straight to the pitcher’s head, but curves hard to the inside and strikes Sanada out.

In the bottom of the the eighth, Seidou's batters attack aggressively and expand their lead to three. The inning ends with Furuya hitting into a double play. To help minimize defensive errors, Kataoka replace Furuya with Kadota. The next batters for Yakushi are the seven-eighth-nine batters, and Raizou's plan is to put some guys on base and bring Raichi up to bat to turn the game around.

On the top of the ninth inning and Yakushi is three runs down with their 7-8-9 batters coming up. With one out, Yakushi's eighth batter hits a grounder to shortstop and Kuramochi barely grabs it, and throws to first for the second out. The ninth batter’s up with Raichi on deck and the batters determined to get on base. Tanba throws and the ball goes to Masuko on third, but it bounced irregularly to the left and the runner just barely makes it to first. Raichi’s up.

The team celebrates their victory over Yakushi High.

Miyuki and Kataoka call it to face Raichi fair and square in order to completely stop Yakushi's momentum. Manaka in the stands thinks that Tanba shouldn’t face Raichi head on. The first (curveball) and second pitch (fastball) are balls and Raichi doesn't budge. The next pitch Tanba throws is weak and seems to be going straight down the middle. Raichi’s ready to blast the thing out of the park, but it goes safely foul. The next ball goes foul again and Raichi's cornered. With the count 2-2, Miyuki calls for the forkball. With the forkball, Raichi whiffs and the game’s over with Seidou's win.