Chapter 7
7. The Monster’s Pitching
The opening game of the Weekend League.
Standing on the mound at Mokdong Baseball Stadium, Seo Ji-tae slowly squeezed and released the rosin bag.
Third-year captain Kang Tae-ho sat behind home plate.
This feels strange. Before I regressed, I was only a bench player.”
Baekho High School’s leadoff hitter adjusted his helmet and stepped into the batter’s box.
Seo Ji-tae frowned when he saw the hitter’s expression.
Why is he looking at me and smirking? Is he trying to provoke me?
The leadoff hitter openly looked down on Seo Ji-tae and grinned.
Seo Ji-tae did not know it, but everyone in Baekho High School’s dugout was also watching the freshman starter with interest.
Play ball!”
The game began with the plate umpire’s loud call.
As the pitcher, Seo Ji-tae exchanged signs with starting catcher Kang Tae-ho.
Kang Tae-ho called for a pitch outside the zone.
Seo Ji-tae frowned.
That isn’t being cautious. That’s just cowardly.
Seo Ji-tae casually nodded as if he accepted Kang Tae-ho’s sign.
This was his first official high school game.
The first pitch has to overpower him with pure force! If I’m afraid to challenge high school hitters directly, I don’t deserve to go to Major League Baseball!
His goal was not the KBO.
It was Major League Baseball, a place filled with the greatest baseball monsters in the world.
Seo Ji-tae began his windup.
His right leg rose above waist height.
His balance remained perfectly steady.
The weight transfer from his 180-centimeter body whipped his arm forward.
Seo Ji-tae’s left arm violently cut through the air.
A fierce sound that seemed to tear the air apart echoed through the stadium.
!”
No one moved except Seo Ji-tae.
A brief silence.
Seo Ji-tae smoothly pulled back his throwing arm and smiled.
The ball inside the mitt and the umpire finally moving broke the silence.
Strike!”
The umpire’s hand shot through the air.
The leadoff hitter’s eyes were wide open.
Where did that smug expression go?
Seo Ji-tae smiled as Kang Tae-ho returned the ball.
His long-awaited first official pitch.
The result was impressive.
The Baekho leadoff hitter’s legs had started trembling slightly.
He looked like prey standing before a predator.
But the shock from that single pitch was not over.
[152 km/h]
The Baekho staff member holding a radar gun for official records stared with his mouth open.
What kind of number is this?”
A first-year high school student.
And a left-handed pitcher at that.
He had thrown 152 km/h on the very first pitch of the opening game.
It was not a radar-gun error.
They had seen the pitch with their own eyes.
Everyone stared blankly at the freshman.
Seo Ji-tae casually received the ball back from his catcher.
Kang Tae-ho, however, looked angry that the freshman had dared ignore his pitch call.
Seo Ji-tae did not care.
You saw my pitches during practice. You know how powerful they are, and you still wanted me to waste one outside? Why would I care about that kind of opinion?
Considering how much authority catchers held in high school baseball, a freshman ignoring the catcher’s lead was practically a coup.
But Kang Tae-ho could not say anything.
Seo Ji-tae had already proven himself through pure power.
They exchanged signs again.
Perhaps Kang Tae-ho had finally given up on his shameless junior, because this time he called for a fastball.
Now that’s more like it.”
Seo Ji-tae entered his second pitching motion.
Another rising fastball.
This pitch spun even harder than the first and attacked the top of the strike zone.
A high fastball.
Hup!”
The Baekho hitter shouted and swung.
But.
His timing was late, and his poor contact destroyed something unexpected.
The sound of splitting wood echoed through the stadium.
The wooden bat in the hitter’s hands snapped in half and fell onto the dirt.
Forget about hitting the sweet spot.
The bat had been overwhelmed by Seo Ji-tae’s powerful stuff and could not survive the impact.
The people watching were stunned.
That’s something you usually see in Major League Baseball.”
Everyone remembered the Major League hitters who had sacrificed countless bats to Rivera’s cutter.
Foul!”
The hitter stared at the broken handle in his shaking hands.
A painful vibration remained in his grip.
A high school pitcher breaking an opponent’s bat in the first inning?
That meant the pitch was far more powerful than expected.
Seo Ji-tae calmly looked at the hitter.
The hitter’s expression was completely different now.
Fear had taken control of his entire body.
Seo Ji-tae only had to wait for Kang Tae-ho to show some courage.
After seeing that, you know what the next pitch should be, right?
Silence before overwhelming force.
Still holding the broken bat, the hitter stepped away from the plate while trembling like someone who had seen a ghost.
The atmosphere in Baekho High School’s dugout had already frozen.
The players who had been laughing about the freshman moments earlier were now completely serious.
The third pitch followed.
Seo Ji-tae simply threw another rising fastball.
Three consecutive fastballs.
The leadoff hitter, frozen by fear and waiting for fastball timing, desperately swung.
The rising fastball passed above his bat.
Strikeout!”
Only three pitches.
Seo Ji-tae had broken a bat and struck out the hitter for the first out.
He simply brushed the rosin from his fingers and calmly waited for the second hitter.
The Baekho High School coach’s face turned red.
Their first hitter had been completely humiliated by a freshman pitcher they had refused to take seriously.
He sent instructions to the second hitter, Kim Jeong-su.
Hey! Jeong-su! Don’t get scared! Crowd the plate! He throws fast, but guys like that usually have bad control. Sit on the fastball!”
The coach shouted until the veins in his neck bulged.
Baekho High School’s second hitter, Kim Jeong-su, moved close to the plate.
I’ve never seen Jun-su’s bat break like that.”
His legs were strangely stiff.
He could not forget the sight of the previous hitter’s bat snapping in half.
Can I really hit that in one try?
He choked up on the bat.
The moment Seo Ji-tae’s arm began moving, Kim Jeong-su stopped breathing.
The ball exploded from Seo Ji-tae’s fingertips and raced toward home plate.
It carried overwhelming force, like a bullet.
Kim Jeong-su squeezed his eyes shut and swung.
