The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 40

40. No Individual Is Greater Than the Team (3)

“Ah, this is driving me crazy.”

Gu Jae-kyung, the coach of Hanseol High School, scratched his head vigorously.

Was it because he couldn’t find an answer? No. The answer was obvious.

Their next opponent: Choi Soo-won of Jungang High, an extraordinary monster. Some idiots were spouting nonsense about his performance in the second half of the league, but Baek Ha-min, the MVP of this year’s Golden Lion Flag [a prestigious high school baseball tournament], had allowed a total of six home runs in the past year and a half. All of them were hit by Choi Soo-won.

Intentional walk, no matter what. There was no other answer.

The problem was whether that answer could actually lead to victory. In fact, whether it was the regional league in the second half or the first round, none of the teams that implemented that strategy had won. Of course, going head-to-head would likely result in Baek Ha-min getting hit hard.

“Ah, how can a high schooler have no weaknesses…”

Gu Jae-kyung was a decent pitcher in his active days. He wasn’t particularly fast, nor did he have any outstanding breaking balls, but he had a strong nerve and excellent command, which allowed him to experience the professional first team stage for eight years. But even Gu Jae-kyung, assuming his prime performance, couldn’t find an answer to that.

If there was a weakness, it would be his eye for the ball? Whether it was a problem with zone setting or a problem with his eye for the ball, he often swung at pitches that were out of the zone.

However, Gu Jae-kyung judged that he had such a high level of hitting ability that he could afford to do that. In fact, he had a history of hitting those pitches that were out of the zone.

He simply closed the file on Choi Soo-won.

*There’s no answer with this kid. Just walk him in any situation. It’s better to study the other guys during this time.*

During his active career, Gu Jae-kyung was always proud of the fact that he had spent almost his entire time in the video room, supplementing his lack of talent with analysis and lasting eight years in the first team. Therefore, although his career wasn’t spectacular, he was confident that his qualifications as a leader were second to none.

*Jungang High, I’ll dissect you completely and win.*

***

Hanseol High’s ace, Jang Ho-yeon, took the mound. He received the MVP award in both the first and second halves of the Daejeon & Chungcheong regional league. But Jang Ho-yeon didn’t think of himself as a great pitcher.

“Send horses to Jeju, and people to Seoul [meaning talent concentrates in the capital].”

This very old saying was still largely true today. Busan or Gwangju might be exceptions. Most of the kids who made a name for themselves nationwide during middle school go to Seoul for school.

Jang Ho-yeon was an ordinary pitcher who threw in the low to mid 120s (km/h) during middle school, and even now, his maximum speed was only 138km/h. He thought that the reason he was able to receive the MVP award was thanks to the sharp analysis of Gu Jae-kyung, the coach of Hanseol High.

Gu Jae-kyung analyzes, the catcher Yang Byeong-jun memorizes, and sometimes receives instructions. And Jang Ho-yeon himself just has to throw the ball they ask for. If he does that, a magical thing happens: his ball, which is only 138km/h at best, very efficiently shuts down the opposing batters.

It wasn’t much different now.

Yes, it certainly wasn’t much different.

0

The leadoff hitter of Jungang High was struck out with two high fastballs and one slider that fell away, and a falling curve. The following second batter was grounded out with a low outside pitch. And then Choi Soo-won, the third batter.

-Bang!!

-Bang!!

-Bang!!!

-Bang!!

Straight walk.

The last fourth batter was out on a high pitch inside.

-Thwack!!

Fly ball out to the outfield.

Top of the 1st inning. Runner left on first. No score.

Top of the 2nd inning. Runner left on first. No score.

And the top of the 3rd inning.

The ninth batter of Jungang High, Jo Yu-jin, came to the plate.

‘Jo Yu-jin, the ninth batter of Jungang High. Catcher. He’s a pretty good player as a catcher, but that’s not something Ho-yeon you need to worry about. He’s a mess as a hitter. It doesn’t matter if you give him a good ball. His batted balls hardly ever get through the infield. But he’s incredibly fast, so he often gets to first base even on ground balls to the infield. So the best situation is when there’s a runner ahead of him. He’s likely to hit into a double play. Even if he doesn’t, you can get the lead runner out.’

The dugout’s instruction was to go for a bold match.

There was no need to waste pitches here.

-Thwack!!

A full pitch on the outside course.

Jo Yu-jin’s bat touched the ball. As expected, a batted ball that didn’t leave the infield. The first baseman ran to catch the ball flowing along the first base foul line.

Jang Ho-yeon, who threw the ball, covered first base as he should. But Jo Yu-jin’s feet were a little faster.

His so-called upper and lower body separation hitting style, which his colleagues say makes it seem like he’s running towards first base before he even gets a good hit on the ball, was still the same. It was a hitting style with only disadvantages in many ways, but it was outstanding at producing infield hits.

No outs, runner on first.

The runner on first took a fairly large lead.

The first batter came to the plate again.

It wasn’t much different from the first inning.

A high fastball. However, this time he threw the curve that had struck him out on the second pitch.

As expected, the bat followed.

-Thwack!!

!?

But the result wasn’t so good.

The ball, which bounced shortly, rolled along the third base foul line. The third baseman ran quickly to catch the ball, but he fumbled the ball once in the process, and the speed of taking the ball out of his glove was not very fast either.

In addition, the runner on first base was very fast for a catcher, and the batter was also fast enough to be the first batter.

‘It’s okay. This can happen.’

No outs, runners on first and second.

The following second batter was challenged with a relentlessly low outside pitch. He’s a batter who easily swings at outside pitches, but because his swing trajectory is close to a downswing, the quality of his batted balls on low pitches is not very good.

So induce a double play.

Ball, strike, ball, foul, foul, ball.

Thus, a 3-2 count.

Choi Soo-won in the waiting seat looks at him.

He’s a truly scary hitter. The coach said, ‘He’s a hitter who could seriously aim for the home run king even if he went to the pros right now.’ Of course, in the meantime, he added the proviso, ‘But it won’t be easy to learn the knack of playing 144 games in a season.’ But that meant that he was a hitter who could aim for the home run king even if he didn’t learn the knack properly, and therefore, he was a hitter who could aim for MVP right away if he only learned the knack of playing the season.

Jang Ho-yeon shook his head.

The situation was clear. The batter he was facing now was not Choi Soo-won, and Choi Soo-won was a batter with a predetermined answer. So what he needs to focus on now is the second batter of Jungang High in front of him.

The seventh.

A sharply honed spirit aimed for the boundary of the zone. It was certain. The ball he threw now would be the best ball he had thrown today.

-Bang!!

The batter’s bat didn’t come out.

Looking strikeout.

‘Huh?’

But the umpire’s hand didn’t go up.

His breathing quickened a little. *That stupid umpire?* A call can be wrong. The umpire just wields god-like authority on the field, but his ability is not that of a god. But if an outcall doesn’t come out on such an artistic ball, you can’t help but feel bad.

-Hoo.

Calm the boiling chest.

Top of the 3rd inning.

No outs, bases loaded.

The irresistible monster came to the plate.

0:0

No outs, bases loaded.

“Ah…”

In Hanseol High’s dugout, Gu Jae-kyung’s sigh flowed out without him realizing it.

“Coach, what should we do?”

Gu Jae-kyung’s pupils shook greatly.

Normally, the answer was obvious.

Induce a ground ball and aim for a double play, even if it means giving up a point. If you’re lucky, you might get a triple play. But this was not a normal situation. Therefore, the answer had to be different from usual.

However, the unfortunate thing was that although the content of the answer was different, the fact that the answer was obviously predetermined did not change.

-Bang!!

“Wow…. He’s tough.”

Someone watching the game from the stands muttered.

Of course, high school baseball doesn’t always have to be a romantic match. Especially if it’s a tournament where one slip can lead to ruin.

But clearly, this kind of scene doesn’t come out easily.

Even in the pros [professional leagues].

Intentional walk in a 0:0 bases loaded situation.

Walk-in run.

The face of Jang Ho-yeon, who was throwing the ball, didn’t show any particular change. He just believes in the dugout’s decision and throws.

-Bang!!

Choi Soo-won, who lightly put down his bat, walked to first base.

And naturally, Jo Yu-jin, who was on third base, walked home.

Top of the 3rd inning.

1:0

Still no outs, bases loaded.

The fourth batter, Jo Gyu-hyeok, came to the plate.

Was his pride hurt? The batter who went out in front of him now is the strongest high school hitter in Korea in this era. No, maybe he’s a hitter who can remove this era and Korea from that modifier.

Intentional walk to load the bases in front of the fourth batter? That can happen.

So was his pride hurt?

‘Of course.’

Apart from the obvious, his stomach was boiling very badly. Not just a walk, but a walk-in run in a tie situation? It means that it’s much better to face Jo Gyu-hyeok himself than to face Choi Soo-won, even if it means giving up a point.

‘No, but logically, that seems to be right…’

Jo Gyu-hyeok shook his head.

It doesn’t matter how rational that fact is. Anyway, feeling bad is feeling bad, and having a boiling stomach is having a boiling stomach.

He stood in position.

He felt the sensation of hitting a home run in the last game still lingering on his fingertips. Moreover, today’s stadium is not Mokdong but Sinwol. It’s a place where home runs come out better than Mokdong.

Jo Gyu-hyeok glared at the mound from the plate.

***

Jang Ho-yeon.

He was definitely a great pitcher.

He was the pitcher who started in both the semi-finals and finals of the 2030 Asian Games, when I swung my bat to get military exemption [winning a gold medal in the Asian Games exempts athletes from mandatory military service]. Of course, he wasn’t a *real* starter, and all of the team’s starters at the time were pitchers who were a bit weak in the first inning on record, so the coach boldly used the opener strategy [using a relief pitcher to start the game], and he was chosen for it.

Typically, the opener is a pitcher who is a bit timid.

So let’s assume that there is a pitcher who is good enough to be a closer in terms of pitching, but he is a chicken and can’t be used in a position to decide the game. Still, he’s a good pitcher, so it’s a shame, but wouldn’t it be great to use him in the first inning, which has relatively less impact on the game but has to face the top of the order?

But Jang Ho-yeon was the opposite.

If he throws fast and strong, that’s not it. His maximum speed was only 142km/h, and his season average speed was about 138km/h. However, his control is amazing. He puts the ball in not in 2 divisions but in 4 divisions, and according to him, he can even do 6 divisions on a good day.

And how indifferent is his personality? In that Asian Games, where all of our military service was at stake, he completely shut out Taiwan in the semi-finals with three batters and Japan in the finals with runners on 1st and 3rd base, contributing to his part.

But…

Anyway, in a bases loaded situation where you don’t have to worry about stealing, Jang Ho-yeon on the mound wound up greatly.

The count was already 1-2.

The ball coming in will probably be a high pitch inside. It’s the ball that Gyu-hyeok senior is most uncomfortable with.

Gyu-hyeok senior’s bat moved compactly.

-Thwack!!!

Of course, a weakness is called a weakness because it is not easily overcome. Each swing clearly had a course that was good to attack and a ball that was good to attack.

But that’s only the story when a ball of that power goes into those completed players. Jang Ho-yeon was a pitcher with very good control. Especially in high school, he had an outstanding talent for command, to the extent that he could divide the zone not just up, down, inside, and outside, but even more than that, although not to the extent of a 9-division pitcher in a cartoon.

But he fully bloomed after he let go of some of his attachment to that control in the pros. Attacking the corners of the zone with a 142km/h fastball and dividing the zone more finely with a 132km/h ball.

I can say for sure that the former is more difficult. Especially if the place where that controlled ball is aiming is obvious.

Gyu-hyeok senior’s second home run. And his first grand slam in high school.

Thus, 5:0 with no outs in the top of the 3rd inning.

It was the moment when our advancement to the third round was virtually confirmed.