The speech is very focued, he seems to have his mind set to it, the tone relates to this situation in the text because they are talking about before death, and he is saying how he wants to stay the same when he dies like his body would stay the same.
Answer:
The pitcher is kind of anxious and with a lot of anticipation about winning, he's not so sure about throwing the right pitch, he wants to win but deeply somehow he feels the batter is better than him.
Therefore the best answer is the last one:
<em>"The pitcher thinks that the batter is much better than he is."</em>
Our coach was feeling rancor when we lost and did not make it to the playoffs, then decided to take it out on us.