"He framed that pitch." - As soon as Shun returned to the dugout, his doubts were cleared up by his friend Kenta.
"Oh! I see..." - Shun murmured, a bit surprised. He had never seen Sugawara framing pitches before. In fact, he was genuinely impressed; he had never seen any middle school catcher frame pitches like that.
"Looks like this is the national level, huh?" - Shun muttered to himself with a slight smile as he glanced at Sugawara behind home plate. As strange as the white-haired maniac was, Shun couldn't deny that playing against players of this caliber made him excited.
'I'll pay you back soon, just wait!' - Shun thought to himself, his gaze challenging Sugawara. He couldn't stop his hands from trembling with anticipation—he wanted to take the mound already and deal with Sugawara and the rest of Hokuto. But of course, he knew they had to stick to the game plan, and his turn to pitch would come soon enough.
While Shun was fired up about facing such talented opponents, the poor young samurai, Ren, was struggling with Kohei's insane pitches. After all, unlike Shun, he didn't have the system's overpowered skills to help him track the ball's trajectory.
After a low fastball in the strike zone and a failed attempt to chase an outside slider, the young samurai was cornered in the duel. When he saw Kohei's third pitch coming his way—a high fastball just on the edge of the strike zone—he had little choice but to swing his bat and try to make contact.
WOOSH
DING
With great effort, Ren managed to make contact with the ball. But unfortunately for him, it was only enough to send the ball high into the air, where it landed safely in Kohei's glove on the mound.
PAH
"Yumi!" - Aiko quickly pulled the little girl back and scolded her. As much as she thought it was adorable to see Yumi defending her brother, she didn't want her going around calling everyone who annoyed her an idiot.
"Pft!" - Toji couldn't hold back a laugh after seeing the little girl call Satoshi an idiot, especially after noticing Satoshi's awkward reaction. "Japan's future ace" clearly had no idea how to deal with insults from a little kid.
'You're not planning to hold back either, are you, Shun?' - Toji turned to Shoto's dugout, his curious gaze fixed on his friend. He was genuinely eager to see how Shun planned to defeat Hokuto's incredible battery.
---
The second inning began quickly, with Sora back on the mound. The young pitcher made it clear with his throws that he had no intention of giving up any more runs to Hokuto's batters.
Starting with Hokuto's sixth batter, Sora struck him out after four pitches with a high fastball in the zone. The seventh batter saw only one pitch in the duel—he swung at Sora's screwball on the first pitch and was eliminated with a fly ball to center field. With two outs, the eighth batter also had no chance, striking out after just three pitches, all fastballs. This ended the top half of the second inning with only three batters.
---
Matching Sora's dominant performance, Kohei continued to dominate on the mound in the bottom of the second inning. Starting with Shoto's fourth batter and captain, Kenta, Kohei needed just four pitches to retire the home run threat with a fly ball to right field.
The fifth batter, Sora, did his best to extend the duel, but after six pitches and a full count, he was forced to swing at a pitch in the zone. Unfortunately, he failed to make contact with Kohei's curveball and struck out.
With two outs, Shoto's sixth batter, Tomo, had no chance against Kohei. After just three pitches—all fastballs in the zone—Tomo struck out without even touching the ball.
The second inning ended with Hokuto Junior High School still leading 2–0.