Shun was confused as to why Toru decided not to swing. He felt that something was wrong, but when Isamu stepped into the batter's box, he shook his head and dismissed those thoughts. He needed to focus on the batter now.
PAH
"Ball!"
PAH
"Ball!"
PAH
"Strike!"
Shun grew even more confused when Isamu also just watched his pitches. He still didn't fully understand what was happening, but he began to get an idea.
He quickly glanced at Hokuto's dugout and saw the white-haired boy looking at him with a disturbing smile.
"Don't tell me he's already figured out that my control is bad? No way, it's only been three innings, and I eliminated most of the batters with strikeouts..." - Shun tried to dismiss this thought, but the truth was staring him in the face.
PAH
"Ball!"
Shun took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. This had been his biggest concern. Although his unpredictable slider was great for making batters miss, it also meant that he had no control over where his pitches would end up.
He had spent a lot of time training with Daigo in recent days so that the boy would be able to catch Shun's pitches. To do this, they found a solution: Daigo would always place his glove in the same spot in the zone.
That way, Shun had a fixed target, and although the pitch's break was always different, Daigo could at least have an idea of where the pitch would end up, making it easier to catch them.
But of course, the only problem that was solved was Daigo being able to catch the pitches. Shun still couldn't control his pitches to make them land in the strike zone when he wanted to.
PAH
"Ball Four!"
PAH
"Strike!"
"What the hell is that?" - Daigo was surprised this pitch from Shun just now had broken entirely horizontally, something that had never happened before.
"What if I hold it like this?" - Shun got excited about the clear difference and began testing grips, ignoring the fact that he was in the middle of a game.
POFT
"Ball!"
This time the ball plummeted downward. Fortunately, Daigo managed to prevent the ball from passing him, otherwise, Sugawara would have scored on a wild pitch.
PAH
"Strike!"
"That's it!" - Shun said excitedly when he saw the pitch's effect. The ball had broken downward but not as much as the last time. Shun then repeated the same grip and threw.
"Damn it!" - The sixth batter felt cornered with two strikes and only one ball. When he saw the same pitch that had just fallen into the zone coming again, he couldn't hold back and swung the bat.
WOOSH
DING
He couldn't make good contact with the ball and ended up hitting it toward Kenta.
After the ball bounced once, Kenta quickly grabbed it and threw it to Ren at second base.
PAH
"Out!"
The young samurai stepped on the base, and after completing the out, he jumped and threw to first.
"Out! 3 outs, changeover!"
"Yeaaaaahhhh!!" - Shun roared as he returned to the dugout, pumped up.