Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 237 - 115: The Ultimate Battle
After getting ready, Lin Guanglai strode over from the first base side to the home plate, halting his steps outside the batter’s box.
Having just finished a half-inning of pitching, he needed some time to catch his breath; besides, Yoshinaga Kentarou had a pretty good touch on his pitching today. Leaving him idle for a bit to cool his rhythm was beneficial for himself and his teammates.
After getting ready, Lin Guanglai took a deep breath and stepped forward with a large stride, adopting his batting stance in the batter’s box.
"Play Ball!"
Yoshinaga Kentarou, who had suffered quite a bit in previous matchups, came into today’s game against Lin Guanglai with a brand new strategy:
The Nihon University team had to unite their full strength to go in a relay battle against Lin Guanglai!
On both offense and defense, Nihon University implemented strict strategies:
When Lin Guanglai was pitching, the top of the order had the freedom to perform, but the bottom of the order had to strictly follow the home plate discipline to consume as much of the opponent pitcher’s stamina as possible if they couldn’t get hits;
And when it came to his batting turn, all of Yoshinaga Kentarou’s pitches, whether fastballs or breaking balls, inside or outside, high or low, had only one fundamental purpose: to suppress Lin Guanglai’s long hits by leveraging angles and speed differences, wearing down his stamina, making him miss his touch, and exhausting him.
After all, Yoshinaga Kentarou himself is a pure pitcher, usually just symbolically swinging a few bats without much intention; but Lin Guanglai’s position does not allow him such a luxury:
As Waseda Jitsugyo’s ace pitcher and unwavering cleanup hitter, relying on teammates might be enough against regular teams, but against a formidable opponent like Nihon University, he must showcase his influence on both offense and defense.
No matter how high Lin Guanglai’s talents or physical attributes are, he is, after all, just flesh and blood; anyone would feel exhaustion— and at that time, it would be Nihon University’s chance to break the stalemate.
In Lin Guanglai’s first at-bat of the game, Yoshinaga Kentarou’s pitches largely hit tricky spots that batters dislike:
The first three consecutive pitches upon stepping into the batter’s box, Yoshinaga Kentarou persistently pressured Lin Guanglai at the inner corner of the strike zone— after three pitches, the count was two balls, one strike.
He then directed a series of pitches to attack Lin Guanglai’s low outside and high strike zones, bringing the count to a full count of three balls, two strikes, while repeatedly forcing Lin Guanglai to swing and foul off the pitches to avoid a strikeout.
After a battle spanning around ten pitches, Lin Guanglai eventually walked, successfully completing his task as his team’s leadoff hitter for this half inning, and reached first base.
For all of Nihon University’s defensive players, this was an outcome they could accept: having faced Lin Guanglai directly on the field, they had experienced the tremendous power of Lin Guanglai’s full-force batting— compared to him hitting long balls, having him on base was less threatening.
After walking Lin Guanglai to first base, Yoshinaga Kentarou seemed to forget his existence and fully focused on the subsequent batters in front of him— even when Lin Guanglai seized the chance to steal second base, it did not cause him any panic.
When facing Lin Guanglai, Yoshinaga Kentarou was always extra cautious; but when facing other members of Waseda Jitsugyo, he once again demonstrated his superior ability and excellent condition: striking out two, making a high fly-out in front of the outfield, he once again defused Waseda Jitsugyo’s surge.
After the first two innings of the game, both teams were evenly matched, with the score remaining at 0-0; and both ace pitchers secured five strikeouts each, focusing all attention on them.
This ultimate battle of the West Tokyo Conference is gradually reaching its climax.
