One inning, nine points!!
The fans watching the match between Yakushi High School and Sensen Academy were stunned by the result in front of them.
In their eyes, there was disbelief.
Although Yakushi High School had shown a very dominant performance recently, it was still hard to believe.
After all, it wasn't easy to disrupt the long-standing balance of the three major powers of West Tokyo and make it to the Spring Koshien, becoming one of the top eight.
Many fans started to like Yakushi High School and began to appreciate the seemingly unserious father-son duo, the Todoroki.
Not only could they provide the audience with laughs, but they also delivered amazing games.
Especially Raichi!
His exhilarating batting style was now very rare in high school baseball. Some even claimed that he was the strongest batter of this era.
This statement wasn't widely accepted for various reasons. After all, there are many players across the country with strong hitting abilities, and without direct matchups, no one could confidently claim Raichi would beat them.
But the mere fact that he was nominated showed his extraordinary strength.
Otherwise, there wouldn't be so much discussion about him.
However, no matter how much fans and spectators praised Yakushi High School's strength, no one expected this match against Sensen Academy to end with such a result.
It was simply unbelievable!
Sensen Academy wasn't just any team to be easily manipulated. It was one of the traditional powerhouses of West Tokyo.
Although Sensen had failed to make it to Koshien in recent years, their progress had been recognized by most people.
It was widely believed that Sensen's strength was considerable and that they could be considered a benchmark for West Tokyo.
No one expected that such a strong team would crumble so easily in the face of Yakushi High School, failing to even hold out for one inning.
In the first inning, they gave up nine points, and the score became 9-0.
How could they continue from here?
Sensen Academy was already weaker than Yakushi High School, and with such a large gap in the score, how could they catch up?
At this point, even some of Yakushi High School's supporters started to sympathize with Sensen Academy.
The rest of the match proceeded much like everyone expected.
In the second inning, Sensen's substitute pitcher showed his skills, handling Yakushi High School's lower-order batters.
Although one batter did get on base, they managed to prevent any runs.
On the other hand, Yakushi didn't send their Ace, Sanada, to the mound in the first two innings. Instead, they sent a first-year student who looked malnourished.
This new player looked like he had been drained by alcohol, with dark circles under his eyes and a listless appearance.
Sensen's players were naturally furious and vowed to show Yakushi High School a lesson for underestimating them.
But unexpectedly, this seemingly lazy player, when he actually stood on the mound, seemed like a completely different person.
He was precise and methodical in his pitching, leading Yakushi's defense in an orderly fashion.
In two innings, he completed the defensive tasks without allowing any runs.
Then came the third inning, where Yakushi High's top-order batters returned to the field.
These hungry wolves were not about to spare Sensen's substitute pitcher.
They showcased strength far beyond their peers, hitting two home runs and racking up three more runs for their team.
The score changed to 12-0.
They were in full swing.
Of course, getting too cocky led to mistakes, and during their defense, Yakushi High made an error and gave up two runs.
The score became 12-2.
Although this small blip occurred, it didn't affect the overall outcome of the match.
Under Yakushi's relentless onslaught, the game ended early after five innings.
The final score was 15-2.
Sensen, even when they played seriously, was still unable to match up. Without their Ace, Maki, their defense showed stability, but they still gave up six runs in four innings.
Facing the most powerful offensive team in the country, Yakushi High, with only a substitute pitcher, they didn't do too badly.
But the nine runs in the first inning remained a breaking point for Sensen.
Quarterfinals, 15-2, five innings of effective play.
Whether this is a unique result in West Tokyo's history remains uncertain, but it is certainly an extremely rare one.
Sensen Academy was destined to live with this shame.
The following day's newspapers and media, while praising Yakushi High School's strength, would undoubtedly also mock Sensen.
Yakushi High School became the second team, after Seidou High School, to advance to the semifinals.
Meanwhile, in another stadium, another quarterfinal match was coming to an end.
The two teams were the West Tokyo powerhouse, Sankou High, facing the notorious Seiko High School with their ferocious lineup.
Seikou had been very prominent in this tournament.
Their second-year pitcher had matured significantly and was dominating with a deadly screwball.
With a powerful batting lineup, they gave the impression of an overwhelmingly strong team.
Although Sankou's performance was excellent, with many runs, Seikou still held the record for the most runs in the tournament so far.
Despite having played one more game than Sankou, their performance was still remarkable.
The match between Seikou and Sankou had fans eagerly anticipating the outcome.
Unlike Yakushi High's match, where most fans didn't believe Sensen could defeat Yakushi, the Seikou vs Sankou match had everyone on edge.
At the start of the match, it was exactly as expected.
It was an intense pitcher's duel!
Both teams' aces firmly controlled the match.
Neither team gave up a run, and they finished three innings with a 0-0 score.
It was an explosive pitcher battle between Sankou's powerhouse lineup and Seikou's violent batting lineup.
At the start of the game, neither batting lineup mattered as much. The focus was purely on the pitchers.
Both Sankou's and Seikou's pitchers fought fiercely, with no clear winner.
As the game moved into the fourth inning, Sankou's top batters seized the opportunity when Seikou's defense had a gap and scored two runs.
The score changed to 2-0.
Sankou's Ace, Amahisa, showed his national-level pitching skills, using tricky pitches to rack up strikeouts and completely dominate the match.
From then on, both teams exchanged blows but could not convert any into runs.
After five innings, the score remained 2-0.
The real twist came in the sixth inning!
Seikou's second-year Ace suffered an injury while attempting to field a ball, hitting his wrist.
Though he stubbornly wanted to continue pitching, the doctor insisted he could not.
Seikou's Ace had to leave the game, and with that, their prospects took a heavy blow.
In high school baseball, sometimes luck becomes a part of the game's strength.
In this case, Sankou was fortunate.
It wasn't their ace who got injured, but Seikou's Ace.
With the loss of their Ace, Seikou's hopes of winning faded.
Without their Ace, the gap widened quickly.
They gave up two runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh.
By the end of the seventh inning, Sankou was leading by seven runs.
On the other side, Amahisa was unsatisfied with the injury of Seikou's Ace.
He felt the game was not being played to the fullest.
At that point, Sankou's Coach approached Amahisa to comfort him.
"Never sympathize with the opponent; it's the greatest insult. Every player standing on the field, making it this far, is prepared to face any outcome. The greatest respect we can show them is to give it our all."
As a passionate youth, Amahisa was convinced by his coach.
In the ensuing innings, he went all out, striking out six batters in a row.
In this game, he finished with 13 strikeouts.
After the match, when he saw Seidou High School's pitcher, Furuya, had more strikeouts, he felt speechless!
Even though Seidou's ace, Sawamura, wasn't pitching, with just a substitute like Furuya, they still wiped out their opponents.
And on top of that, they set the strikeout record for the tournament.
By comparison, Amahisa's 13 strikeouts didn't seem as impressive.
Seidou High's team also ended their game early in seven innings.
Yet, Furuya's strikeout total surpassed his.
With that, the four teams from West Tokyo were set.
They were: the dominant Seidou High School, the rising powerhouse Yakushi High School, and Sankou High, who were determined to take down the champions.
The last quarterfinal match would determine the final spot in the top four.
It was between Inashiro Industrial High School and their opponent, the Sousei High School team, who had fought their way into the top eight.
Even though this was the last match, spectators were already certain of the outcome.
The winner would undoubtedly be Inashiro Industrial High School.
The only question left was how many innings the game would last. Would it go nine innings or end early at seven?
Or even before that?
…