The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 50

50. Do Your Best and Forget the Rest (2)

The score was 4:0.

So far, one lucky hit, one error, and one intentional walk. And a whopping four strikeouts.

Baek Ha-min’s pleading eyes once again turned towards the Cheonnam High dugout.

“Ah, this is driving me crazy.”

Cheonnam High’s coach, Kim, chewed on his lower lip.

The point difference wasn’t what mattered right now. This absolutely couldn’t happen. He was ready to tell them to give him a walk, even with the bases loaded.

‘No, shouldn’t I be telling them to give him a walk because the bases are loaded?’

7 plate appearances, 6 at-bats, 6 hits, 6 home runs allowed, 1 walk.

If any pitcher was putting up these kinds of numbers, he’d be telling them to quit pitching immediately. But that pitcher was a contender for the number one overall pick in the first round?

One point? Okay, he could concede that.

But Baek Ha-min’s mentality might shatter after getting hammered with home runs…

‘Though, I don’t think it will.’

He might be a bit tearful and have a sensitive side, but Coach Kim still saw Baek Ha-min on the mound as tough as a pebble. Perhaps what would wound his mentality even more wasn’t getting hit with home runs, but this situation that forced him to give up on the match itself.

The biggest phrase hanging in his room.

‘What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.’

Coach Kim had never seen anyone more suited to that phrase than Baek Ha-min. Maybe what was truly bad for Baek Ha-min’s mentality wasn’t losing to Choi Soo-won, but his own instructions that made him avoid the match itself.

Worst case scenario, 4:1…

The moisture he saw in the unnecessarily large eyes staring straight at him was probably not his imagination.

A great coach would never nod in this situation.

But unfortunately, Coach Kim didn’t think of himself as a great coach. If he were, he’d be sniffing around the professional baseball scene instead of being stuck here in high school baseball. But at least he was a good adult.

His head moved up and down. Various emotions danced in Baek Ha-min’s eyes.

The atmosphere changed in an instant. Those sitting in the special seats, which were 4,000 won more expensive than the other seats and directly facing the pitcher, were the first to feel it.

“What’s this? I’m getting a slightly eerie feeling right now?”

Choi Soo-won laughed.

Anyway, this guy was too obvious. He could pretend to give a walk on one pitch and then suddenly take the timing, but he always made it so obvious. But he didn’t feel too bad. No, he actually found it cute. If some scrub was doing that, he’d just scoff, but if it was someone like Baek Ha-min, he could call it the pride of an ace.

‘Well, even though his record is 666.’

Baek Ha-min on the mound wound up big.

A fastball.

No, a faster fastball. No, an even faster fastball.

His body, pulled back to the limit like drawing a bow, snapped forward in an instant. Tremendous forward energy. The moment the power that started from his lower body was concentrated at his fingertips. The ball, dragged out to that far place, exploded from his hand.

In this game, maybe even in his life so far, it was the most powerful fastball he had ever thrown.

The numbers on the scouts’ speed guns in the special seats were slightly different. But what was clear was that the numbers were at least over 153 km/h [approximately 95 mph].

Choi Soo-won in the batter’s box moved.

As a pitcher, Choi Soo-won distinguished the pitches he threw by the grips he used for various fastballs, curves, sliders, and so on. But Choi Soo-won the batter was different.

Is it a breaking ball? No. He doesn’t see the characteristic topspin. Of course, a splitter would fall with backspin, but Baek Ha-min doesn’t have a splitter in his repertoire.

Then is it a curveball? Again, no. The curveballs Baek Ha-min throws are only sliders and high-speed sliders. He didn’t see the characteristic spin of a slider in that ball.

It’s a fastball.

The time it took to get to this point was 0.18 seconds.

Now that he had identified what the incoming ball was, it was time to move. He looked at the movement of the ball and inferred its trajectory. He strongly lowered his slightly raised left leg. And with that small movement, his body’s center of gravity shifted perfectly. A powerful torso rotation was added to that shift in center of gravity. An uppercut swing. But it wasn’t a big, sweeping swing like a golf swing. Just slightly, very slightly.

He overlapped the trajectory of the swing with the trajectory of the fast ball coming in hard.

The point of contact was slightly in front of his torso. It was the point at which the power on the bat was maximized.

The time it took for the ball that left Baek Ha-min’s hand to get close to home plate was 0.36 seconds.

-Clang!!!!!!

An launch angle of about 34 degrees.

A batted ball speed of over 180 km/h [approximately 112 mph]. The ball, soaring high, drew a huge arc and flew swiftly over the fence.

A home run.

Baek Ha-min’s pupils widened as he watched the batted ball. At the same time, Cheonnam High’s coach Kim tore at his hair. He was out of his mind. What was he thinking, allowing him to compete with that monster?

Choi Soo-won leisurely rounded the bases.

Baek Ha-min’s gaze shifted from the batted ball that went over the fence to Choi Soo-won, who was circling the bases. He might have felt a little better if he had been circling the bases in a showy manner. But Choi Soo-won’s appearance as he rounded the bases was just as calm as if he had done what he was supposed to do.

Jo Gyu-hyeok followed and struck out on three pitches.

As he felt it, Baek Ha-min’s ball was the sharpest of all the balls he had ever experienced.

The game continued.

***

5th inning.

An Byeong-yeong, who had thrown 105 pitches, came down from the mound.

“Good job.”

“……..”

An Byeong-yeong didn’t answer Lee Jin-woo. He just held out the baseball he was holding. And Lee Jin-woo accepted the baseball he was holding out. The ball was hot. Whether it was because of the heat of July or because of An Byeong-yeong’s still burning heart, he didn’t know.

The score on the scoreboard was 5:1.

It wasn’t good in many ways.

Was the problem with Jungang High’s hitting today? Or was Baek Ha-min’s pitching just absurd? Lee Jin-woo thought it was closer to the latter. In the two innings after Choi Soo-won’s home run in the top of the 3rd inning, Baek Ha-min struck out a whopping four of the six outs.

To be honest, he didn’t even expect this far.

Everything he had said to Choi Soo-won that day was also sincere. He was very pleased that his baseball career ended with a regional championship. Therefore, he thought that finishing his appearance with a strikeout in the third game was a perfect ending that went beyond satisfaction.

So, is this stage superfluous?

Lee Jin-woo shook his head.

No, no.

No way. How could this glorious stage be superfluous? Maybe this moment was the most brilliant moment of his life. He would definitely be able to proudly tell someone about it in the distant future.

That he had taken over An Byeong-yeong’s ball, who had pitched in place of Choi Soo-won in front of more than 6,000 spectators in the Cheongryonggi final [a prestigious high school baseball tournament], and faced off against Baek Ha-min.

To do that, he would have to pitch at least without being ashamed.

He had already thrown 35 pitches in the bullpen.

His body, which had been resting for several days, was heated up by the hot summer heat.

He had no desire to control his pace and throw for a long time.

He turned around and made eye contact with the infielders one by one. And finally, he looked at Jo Yu-jin. Jo Yu-jin pounded his mitt and encouraged him.

Lee Jin-woo gave up 4 hits and one walk in 0.2 innings, finishing the inning with 2 runs. Choi Soo-won handed him a cool ion drink as he returned to the dugout.

The score on the scoreboard was 7:1

-Whoosh!!

“Strike!! Out!!”

One out.

Choi Soo-won’s third at-bat.

And Baek Ha-min’s last chance had come.

Baek Ha-min’s gaze did not look at the dugout.

He had already received permission from the coach.

In today’s game, Baek Ha-min proved it.

That what doesn’t kill him only makes him stronger.

Among those watching the game, one of the scouts sitting in the special seat swallowed hard.

The hot weather. Sweat dripped down and soaked his T-shirt, but an incomprehensible chill raised his body hair.

Why was a mere ball game between high school students giving him such tension?

He thought he knew the reason.

To some, baseball might just be a ball game. But at least to the kids standing in that spot right now, baseball was everything they had devoted their entire lives to for just over a dozen years. And the two players standing on the mound and in the batter’s box were the pinnacle of all those players.

That spot right now was a spot that someone could not have reached because they lacked effort, talent, luck, or something that could not be defined by the names of effort, talent, or luck.

The pitcher on the mound looked at the batter.

The batter in the batter’s box looked at the pitcher.

First pitch.

The pitcher’s fastball grazed the edge of home plate exquisitely. In some ways, it could be seen as a ball that was out of the zone.

-Boom!!

“Strike!!!”

But the umpire called a strike. The batter did not express any regret about it. He just stepped out of the batter’s box for a moment to adjust his stance.

Then he stepped into the batter’s box, adjusted his helmet with his left hand, and tapped his head twice. He gripped the bat strongly twice with his right hand, tapped home plate once, and then straightened his stance.

Ball count 0-1.

The pitcher’s wrist turned slightly. No, maybe he just felt that way. At least, the only one who accurately captured it at that moment was the batter in the batter’s box.

That’s why he could tell without even seeing the spin of the ball.

It was the high-speed slider that had made pitcher Baek Ha-min the MVP of the first half of the King of Kings tournament [another prestigious baseball event].

This time, the course was also exquisite.

Concentration raised to the limit. Clearly, the pitcher on the mound right now was running beyond the limit of his ability.

The batter’s bat stopped.

-Boom!!

A moment of hesitation.

The umpire’s hand did not go up.

Ball count 1-1

The pitcher also did not express any regret. He just silently prepared the third ball.

He gripped the rough seams accurately. The batter in the batter’s box right now was definitely not a high school-level batter. He was a top-class professional. No, maybe even better. He was a monster who would never miss a mistake and would knock any ball in an awkward course, no matter how fast it was, over the fence.

Third.

Baek Ha-min’s nerves went wild. Tremendous concentration. To exaggerate a little, it felt like he could control his body down to 0.1mm units.

Same form, same release point. And similar intensity of power.

High in the zone, inside the plate. A very well-controlled ball went in quickly. This time, it was also a very precarious course. Perhaps if the speed, power, and location of all the balls were formed like this, even a major leaguer could do it.

It was definitely close to the most perfect ball that Baek Ha-min should pursue in the future.

And Choi Soo-won’s bat moved.

-Clang!!

An explosive swing.

With his arms attached to his torso, his waist leaned back slightly. If his usual swing was a swing that moderately added the rotational force of his torso to a strong forward force, then the current swing could be seen as relying almost entirely on the rotational force of his torso.

The ball that soared high stretched out into the air.

Baek Ha-min on the mound smiled helplessly.

What else could he do but laugh when a ball he had thrown so well that he felt relieved was hit by a bat that had been swung in such an awkward posture and flew away?

Choi Soo-won in the batter’s box frowned and tilted his head. Then he quickly sprinted towards first base.

Baek Ha-min doesn’t know. No, no one in this world knows. That Choi Soo-won in his prime used this form to hit massive home runs of 141 meters [approximately 463 feet] in Citi Field. Also, that Choi Soo-won at that time was a monster of 193cm [approximately 6’4″] and 120kg [approximately 265 lbs].

Cheonnam High’s left fielder ran to the fence with all his might.

Since he was already playing a deep outfield defense in a fairly deep position, it wasn’t that difficult. The wind from Anyangcheon [a local river] blew from the outfield towards the infield.

The ball that was flying gradually sank.

-Thwack

A light jumping catch.

It was embarrassing to say that he had stolen a home run. It was right to see it as just catching a ball that would have hit the fence and fallen with his glove.

He raised his gloved hand high.

Choi Soo-won, who had run past first base and was near second base, lightly clicked his tongue. Baek Ha-min, who had thought that it would naturally go over the fence, could not hide his joy at the unexpected luck.

Top of the 6th inning, 7:1.

The score was not narrowed.

Nevertheless, the Jungang High kids did their best. But that was the same for the Cheonnam High kids.

The Cheongryonggi final, which had no cold game [a mercy rule where the game ends early due to a large score difference].

That’s how the bottom of the 9th inning didn’t come.

***

“Are you really sure about this?”

“Unless we are gods, we cannot know the future. But at least the scouting team has reached a unanimous conclusion.”

Of course, considering the current situation of the team, it is not the right choice. Currently, this team is in a total mess, and it is not in a situation where it can compete for the championship even if a few players who can contribute immediately come in. Moreover, Jeong Byeong-cheol was a talent who might be able to solve the catcher position, which had been the team’s biggest problem for a long time. A catcher with the overall 1st pick grade was not something that came out easily.

But even so, the scouts who watched the Cheongryonggi final in person all told the same story, the performance Baek Ha-min showed was so overwhelming and his growth was dazzling.

Therefore, pass on Jeong Byeong-cheol and pick Baek Ha-min.

Three weeks until the 2026 draft.

Busan Marines have finalized their draft strategy.