Baseball and the Azure Blue Sky

Chapter 30: Getting to know the Baseball Idiot's Ace

After high-fiving Furuya and swapping with him in the bullpen for pitching practice with Miyuki, Sora had gone to individual batting. The day before she had asked Takashima if it would be possible to reserve a certain part of the practice field for herself because there was something she wanted to try out and she needed a little bit more space for that than usual.

Luckily for the blue haired girl, she had gotten permission and thus she had distributed fiery red round flags as targets all over the field before starting the ball machine. Focusing on her course control, she tried to pinpoint her hits directly at the red markers, but as always, only about half of the baseballs actually landed spot on on one of the targets. Some others were fairly close and started to flock around certain areas, but the number of bulls-eye hits was still disappointing for the blue head. That wouldn't be good enough for an official match! Control, she needed more control! Like when she was pitching.

Unbeknownst to her, she had already spent much more time on the field than planned and several people were able to have a closer look at her unique batting practice as they walked by. Coach Kataoka and the female scout Takashima, for example who were surprised about her method.

"Didn't she tell us that her batting wasn't extraordinary?" Takashima asked amused, fixing her glasses with her index finger.

"Mh, with her success rate she might still think like that. And her average isn't all that great, statistically speaking, so she wasn't entirely wrong", the stern head coach replied, focusing his gaze on the young girl who tried her best to get a grip of how to control a bat properly.

"True", the brunette woman admitted. "But if she's actually able to pull off what she's trying right now, it could become a great weapon and an essential advantage for the team as a whole"

"I think the problem lies in her form. We would have to correct her stance accordingly, but that could break the amount of control she has already established by now and make things worse instead"

"Maybe we should talk to coach Ochiai about it, he might have one or the other thought about it we usually wouldn't have. His different perspective has already helped us a few times after all"

"Do that. I'm leaving it to you"

On the opposite side of the practice field, on the way leading also to the dorms and the bath, Kuramochi, Miyuki, Kominato and Shirasu were walking side by side after picking up the brunette catcher in the bullpen. The boys were holding their bats and helmets as they had attempted to do some extra practice as well.

"You-san, look! Isn't that Sora-kun?!" the pink haired teen asked and pointed at his blue haired teammate after he had heard a continuous cling sound of a metal bat hitting a ball.

The shortstop and also their other two comrades stopped in their tracks and turned their heads in the direction of Kominato's pointing finger.

"Yeah, it is", Kuramochi affirmed, furrowing his brows at the sight of the red targets on the field.

"What is he doing?" Shirasu questioned equally skeptical.

"Isn't that...? What he told us the other day?!" Kominato blurted out unusually excited for the calm and shy boy and his green haired fielding partner nodded proudly.

"Hyaha! Target practice for pinpointing his hits like he would with his pitches! That lil' bastard... Not only showing off in the bullpen, but also trying to steal all the good parts in the offense for himself"

"Eh?!"

Miyuki's caramel eyes widened and he scanned the field, estimating the number of baseballs lying directly on the round flags, but also those who had come very close.