Hanshin 2nd Army Base, pitching practice field.

"Crack!"

"Crack!"

"Crack!!"

The sound of catching a ball was mixed in various degrees.

On one side of the practice field, pitchers stretched out their arms on their pitchers' mounds, and on the opposite side, catchers lined up to catch the ball.

Zhang Zhe was also among them.

Hanshin currently has more than a dozen pitchers in the second team, including newcomers who have been drafted in recent years, substitutes who have been transferred to the second team, main players in the first team who are waiting to recover from injuries, etc.

The ratio of pitchers to catchers is greater than three to one.

Getting used to pitching and catching is not an easy task. Zhang Zhe is still in the stage of trying to build a good relationship with the pitchers, and An Xin is working as a bullpen catcher.

A few hours later.

After completing his catches, Zhang Zhe joined the training of the infield team without stopping.

The day went by and it was time for the sun to set.

Zhang Zhe hasn't left yet.

He and his colleague Takadera Nomumu stayed behind and were cleaning the rest area together.

Nippon Professional Baseball is very strict about seniority. The two of them are the youngest and have the lowest seniority, so they inevitably have to do some chores.

Fortunately, the seniors did not have the habit of chewing melon seeds and spitting in the rest area. The ground in the rest area only had some loose soil that had been stepped on and was swept out in twos and twos.

The two chatted casually.

Takadera Nozomi stretched his waist and said, "Do you feel that the atmosphere in the team has become a lot tighter recently?"

"A bit." Zhang Zhe also noticed the somewhat solemn atmosphere in the team.

"After the first army returned from spring training, many people were sent to the second army. They definitely wanted to join the first army again, so they did not miss any opportunity to perform. Of course, the atmosphere in the second army became tense." Takadera Nozomi

speculated.

The conversation changed.

Gao Siwangmeng looked at Zhang Zhe enviously.

"Your position should be the most stable. You can start every game, so you don't have to worry about not having a chance to perform."

Zhang Zhe, who was thoughtful and considerate, said with joy in his heart: "I'm still in the protection period of a newbie."

"That's right," Takadera Wangmeng said with complicated emotions, "One finger always has some privileges, otherwise it would be like us who are lower in the ranking."

After cleaning up, the two of them ended the conversation and went back.

Gao Siwangmeng's complaint gave Zhang Zhe a reminder.

He occupied the main position but performed poorly, which caused dissatisfaction among some teammates.

"We have to increase our batting average first." Zhang Zhe thought.

In professional baseball, if there is no performance, there is no right to speak. The most realistic manifestation is that annual salary is linked to performance.

Poor performance is not just a matter of one person. Taking up a playing position is equivalent to reducing the resources that other people can allocate. If there is no corresponding output, how can you convince the public.

The reason why he was lowered during the spring training scrimmage may be due to competition balance.

He dropped from the sixth battalion to the eighth battalion, and the number of bats in his turn was less than that of the previous battalion.

As his body's adaptability improves, Zhang Zhe is confident to deliver different results.

The premise is that the coaching staff continues to give him a starting position.

Race day comes on March 9th.

The first round of the 2021 Nippon Professional Baseball League 2 Spring Education League begins. The Hanshin 2nd Division will face the Orix 2nd Division at home.

After the warm-up training, Zhang Zhe returned to the rest area with his bat.

Once inside.

Except for a few good teammates who greeted me with smiles, most of the others had dull faces and deliberately showed a sense of alienation.

The reason is simple. In today's starting lineup, Zhang Zhe serves as the eight-bat first baseman.

Some people performed better than Zhang Zhe in practice games, but the main position was still with Zhang Zhe and they couldn't take it away. So they became dissatisfied and secretly complained using the term "supervisor's son".

Zhang Zhe heard some of the rumors, but he didn't pay attention to them anymore and concentrated on preparing for the game.

The opponent in today’s game is the second team of Orix.

ORIX's home stadium is located in Osaka Prefecture. It is another professional baseball team belonging to the Kinki region and competes with the Hanshin Tigers for local fans.

The 2nd Division League is divided by geographical location, with Orix 2nd Division and Hanshin 2nd Division both in the Western Division.

Starting from the spring education league, the two teams will play three games in a row.

In today's first game, both sides want to win and get off to a good start.

The starting list includes both young and talented newcomers and experienced backbone players, as well as the main players of the first team who earn hundreds of millions of yen per year to find their form.

The strength level is much higher than that of the opponents in the practice match.

Hits are not easy to knock out, and scoring becomes very difficult.

The game entered a difficult track from the beginning.

When it was Zhang Zhe's turn to bat in the second half of the second inning, the two teams combined had only one single.

The score was 0-0, with two outs and a runner on first base.

Before entering the striking area, Zhang Zhe held both ends of the wooden stick with both hands, raised it, and stretched his waist backward.

Movements are stretched and joints are flexible.

"You should be in good condition today."

Zhang Zhe grabbed the bat and entered the right strike zone.

The first pitch went relatively smoothly, but on the third pitch two pitches later, he hit an outside four-seam fastball behind the first baseman and ran to the first base.

Zhang Zhe, who was on base in the leadoff spot, created scoring opportunities at first and third base.

Unfortunately, the next teammate struck out on the fly, giving Orix the third out.

[To be honest, I have been using Yeguo to read and catch up on books recently. I can switch sources and read aloud with many sounds. www. Android and Apple are available.]

"What a pity." Zhang Zhe said regretfully.

Seeing that the game was developing into a pitching battle, our team missed a great opportunity to score points.

It hurts morale!

Zhang Zhe's intuition was right.

Going into the first half of the third inning, Hanshin's second team gave up a home run and fell behind 0-1 to Orix's second team.

As a result, the game became increasingly tense.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth innings passed one after another, and neither team was able to change the score again. Both teams had the same few hits.

Hanshin's second team finally launched another offensive attack in the bottom half of the seventh inning, creating a scoring opportunity with runners on first and second base.

However, the sixth and seventh batters of their turn were both struck out.

The runner on base was stunned and couldn't advance further from zero outs to two outs.

Supervisor Hirata Katsuo looked displeased. Seeing that the next hit was Zhang Zhe, who had previously hit the second double play, he suddenly came up with the idea of ​​​​changing the hit.

If we don't score now, I'm afraid we will end up with a clean sheet.

Change the generation and fight hard at the critical moment?

Hirata Katsuo was moved. With his decades of baseball experience, now was the time to change his career.

But on the other hand, he also wanted to see how Zhang Zhe would handle the ball at this time.

So Hirata Katsuo stood still and did not give any instructions.

Zhang Zhe, who was walking towards the strike zone, didn't know that he was on the verge of being replaced.

""Eight bats, first baseman, Zhang Jun!""

""Eight bats, first baseman, Zhang Jun!""

At the beginning of the game, Zhang Zhe faced the ORIX reliever left-hander and stared at his movements with all his attention.

The opponent was a pitcher who had been in professional baseball for five years.

Although the current crisis was caused by him, he has rich experience and knows how to deal with it. The strikeout of two batters just now was done by him.

Such a strong and experienced pitcher threw the first pitch in the mat.

The ball is released high and fast towards the inside corner of the right batter.
To be continued...