Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 333 - 186: Battle Against the Dark Horse

"Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the broadcast of the 94th National High School Baseball Championship West Tokyo Conference - the final match."

"The last summer of 2012, after nearly a month of fierce competition, the two teams have ultimately defeated all other opponents in the West Tokyo region, arriving at the stage of the finals—"

"On the field, to the right on the first base side, stands Kojo Academy, the team attacking first today."

"On the field, to the left on the third base side, stands the defending champions of the Summer Koshien, Waseda Industries, attacking second."

"In this match, the main focus is undoubtedly on Waseda Real’s Lin Guanglai—this tournament marks the curtain call of his high school career. Can this monster-level player, who has caught the attention of numerous professional teams, secure a ticket to Koshien in his last summer?"

"The match is about to start, dear audience, let’s witness it together!!!"

In the stadium, players from both sides gathered in the open spaces beside the field, warming up with catches and passes with their teammates before the match; at least from the broadcast footage, the expressions on the Waseda Real players’ faces seemed relaxed, showing no signs of pressure.

Since the summer, the entire team’s state has gradually gotten back on track, and during the first half of the West Tokyo Conference, they gained overwhelming advantage over those schools:

Round 1, 12:1 against Fuchu High School, ended early in the 5th inning;

Round 2, 8:0 against Engineering College, ended early in the 7th inning;

Round 3, 7:0 against Hino High School, ended early in the 7th inning;

Round 4, 8:0 against Nihon University Tsurugaoka, ended early in the 7th inning.

Just as critics questioned them, suggesting they can ’only bully the weak’, and predicting they’d probably go silent against a strong team lineup like in spring, they went head-to-head with Nihon Univ. 3rd Junior & Senior High School in the quarterfinal match.

Although the golden generation of Nihon Univ. 3rd Junior & Senior High School that won the Shengong victory had all graduated last year, greatly impacting the team’s strength, they are still a prestigious team in Tokyo—old dogs have a few teeth, and in the match, they indeed caused some trouble for Waseda Real.

But compared to Waseda Real, who had set the goal of ’giving the seniors a perfect finale’ before the summer season began, their determination to win the match was even stronger than Nihon Univ. 3rd Junior & Senior High School—after more than two hours of fierce battle, Waseda Real secured a stunning 3:0 shutout victory, slapping the faces of those who underestimated them.

In the semifinals, they defeated the equally outstanding Soka High School with a score of 3:1, securing the first ticket to Shengong Stadium for this year’s West Tokyo Conference.

On the other hand, their opponent, Kojo Academy, is a dark horse team that has only shown signs of rising in recent years—although their performance in the past two years has been decent, in a selection region like West Tokyo, where strong teams are like Lin, Kojo Academy was never considered a favorite by any professional media or commentators.

It must be noted that this school isn’t a strong school, and its team has only participated in the Koshien tournament 3 times. The last and only summer league experience dates back to 1974; even in their baseball department’s most glorious period from the late ’60s to early ’70s, the best achievement was only a second-round journey in Koshien.

Even their entrance into the local conference finals this time is seen by many outsiders as merely luck from the drawing, having reached this point by sheer luck.

7:0 against Naruse High School, 6:2 against Special University, 5:0 against Meiji Nakano Hachiouji, 4:1 against Nippon University Two, 7:4 against Katakura... These victories look impressive, but except for Nippon University Two, none of the other teams have ever made it through West Tokyo, most being the weakest of weak teams.

Some experts even predicted that the outcome of the West Tokyo Conference was already decided at the quarterfinal match: when Waseda Real defeated Nihon Univ. 3rd Junior & Senior High School at Shengong Stadium, they had already stepped halfway into the gates of Koshien.

Lin Guanglai doesn’t care what the outside world thinks; but in the team’s meetings, whether it was director Izumi Minoru or the team captain himself, he emphasized countless times to the team not to underestimate any opponent;

Lin Guanglai even cited Osaka Tsubaki from last year’s summer tournament as an example: although they clearly had a strong advantage over their opponent and had already gained a significant lead against them in the match, the final victory went to Higashi Osaka Kashiwabara.

Anything is possible in baseball games, especially in the summer season with a single-game elimination format; like last year’s Osaka Tsubaki, Lin Guanglai believes that if they could play against Higashi Osaka Kashiwabara ten times, winning nine of those would be very likely—nevertheless, it’s this one loss that was enough to bury a group of people’s only chance in their lifetime.

This is Lin Guanglai’s last summer, and he treats every game this summer as if it were his last.

At least for Lin Guanglai himself, he hopes to end his high school career at Koshien—so, any factor that could possibly stop him from achieving this goal needs to be eliminated.

At ten o’clock in the morning, the match at Shengong Stadium promptly began, and the Waseda Real players, defending first then attacking, quickly took their positions on the field; behind the home plate, the chief umpire pointed his right hand towards the pitcher’s mound, signaling Lin Guanglai to start throwing.

Looking at the opposing batter already standing in the hitting zone, Lin Guanglai made up his mind, determined to give the opponent a strong opening.

He confirmed the strategy for this at-bat with Uesugi Yasuyuki using hand signals, then closed his glove, assuming the pitching stance.

Lift the foot, gather strength, twist, swing the arm—"whoosh," as the arm whipped like a lash, the baseball shot out, darting towards home plate like a furious arrow.

"Boom—"

The baseball clashed fiercely with the catcher’s glove, producing a heavy sound, loud enough to be heard even by those seated slightly away from home plate in the stands.

"Wow—" the commentator exclaimed: "The speed of this pitch is as fast as 155 km/h, seems Lin is extremely determined today, he opened the game throwing speedily almost reaching his personal top speed..."

Before the commentator finished his sentence, Lin Guanglai on the pitcher’s mound had thrown a second ball, the speed at 158 km/h, startling him.

"This, this, this... 158 km/h!!! My god! This is a pitch thrown by a high school student—what, what, what is this?"

"It can be seen that the Kojo Academy’s Sakibe couldn’t react at all. Faced with these two pitches, he couldn’t even make a swing... To be honest, it’s not his fault; because anyone witnessing such a performance would probably be shocked, wouldn’t they?"

However, Lin Guanglai didn’t intend to stop his advance, as he made his next pitch, Kojo Academy’s first batter, forced to the brink, couldn’t see the baseball’s trajectory at all, only instinctively swinging the bat wildly.

As the baseball flew into the catcher’s glove, a huge roar erupted from Shengong Stadium—not a roar for Kojo Academy’s batter; all praise, all amazement surged like the tide towards the tall young man on the pitcher’s mound.

"Ah—!!! Swing and a miss!!!"

"Three consecutive speedballs! Lin Guanglai! A super fastball at 160 km/h!!!"

"Yes! Not just Ohtani from Iwate could do it! Our Tokyo’s Lin, the Monster of the Heisei Era, he can do it too!!!"

"Lin Guanglai! In the world of high school baseball, he is capable of anything!"