Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 334 - 187: Onward to Koshien

"Top of the ninth inning, two outs—defending champions are just one out away from advancing to the Summer Koshien for the third consecutive year!"

"The players from Josen Academy didn’t make many mistakes this game, but against Waseda Industries, against someone of Lin Guanglai’s caliber, just not making mistakes isn’t enough—the 6:0 score of this game purely reflects the difference in hard power between the two teams."

"Now on the pitcher’s mound is the sophomore player Tanaka, who was substituted in the eighth inning. So far, he’s been performing excellently."

"Let’s see how this pitch goes!"

"Swing and a miss, strike three! No problem! For the defending champions, their summer isn’t over yet! The dream of becoming the 7th school in history to win consecutive summer championships isn’t over! Waseda Industries advances to Summer Koshien for the third consecutive year!"

"This truly is the golden era for Waseda Industries!"

At the same time the home plate umpire signaled the batter was out, Lin Guanglai, defending in right field, raised both hands high and quickly rushed toward home plate.

Under the scorching sun, the Waseda players excitedly embraced to celebrate—even though they’ve never missed a summer game in the past few years, this time it had a different meaning—

Because for senior Lin Guanglai and the others, this was truly their last summer.

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On July 29, 2012, at Yokohama Baseball Stadium, the home of the Yokohama BayStars, hosting this year’s Kanagawa Conference final match.

The match had ended, and the scoreboard above the outfield stands clearly displayed the final result of the game:

Tokogakuen Academy 11:4 Kiyonokura Academy.

Cheers from the audience rose wave after wave, all converging on the young man at the center of the field at this moment.

Matsui Yuuki—this summer, his name has been spread by word of mouth across all of Kanagawa; at least among local baseball media there, their home team now had a genius player comparable to Lin Guanglai.

In four complete games pitched during the Kanagawa Conference, facing strong teams including Yokohama and Kiyonokura, this sophomore demonstrated unrivaled pitching skill: in four games, he struck out 17, 11, 10, and 15 batters respectively, with an average strikeout count of 13.25 per game—a rarity in Kanagawa’s history;

With a fastball reaching speeds up to 147 km/hr, combined with a slider and curveball with significant drop, this combination made him a ruthless strikeout machine.

There’s a saying in the world of soccer, "A good goalkeeper is like half a team," which applies to baseball too—at least at the high school baseball level, an elite pitcher far above his peers can often single-handedly turn a weak team into a strong one.

"Matsui, since the start of 2012, your performance has been outstanding and you’ve truly exploded at this conference—now that you’re finally heading to Koshien, do you have any specific opponents you’d like to face?"

On the field, reporters were interviewing Matsui Yuuki; this flamboyant young man on the field turned surprisingly shy during the interview, giving only brief answers to several previous questions without much substance.

However, upon hearing this question, Matsui Yuuki’s eyes suddenly lit up, and his demeanor instantly changed from harmless to sharp.

"The opponent I most want to face is Lin from Waseda—before I chose to join Tokogakuen, Mr. Izumi from Waseda Industries tried to recruit me to study in Tokyo, but I refused; it’s not just because Tokogakuen is closer to home, but also because I didn’t really want to be Lin’s teammate..."

Seeing the reporters’ eyes grow excited, Matsui Yuuki realized he was misunderstood and quickly added, "...Rather than growing slowly under Lin’s wings as a teammate, I definitely prefer to face him as an opponent on the true battlefield!"

"I watched Waseda’s entire game yesterday, and clearly Lin is in excellent condition; coincidentally, I also feel that I am in very good form—hopefully at Koshien, I’ll have the opportunity to compete against him."

Sensing he needed more momentum, he finally added:

"Maybe I can’t yet throw as fast a fastball as Lin, but when it comes to striking out ability—I believe he may not necessarily surpass me!"

After finishing this last sentence, Matsui Yuuki bowed to the stunned reporters in front of him, then put down the microphone and walked back to where his team was.

A moment later, the reporters, who were momentarily confused, gradually recovered, and faces beamed with excitement, eager to write up a dozen or twenty news articles on it.

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The TV was broadcasting the Osaka conference finals, the match-up left no suspense, as it was the classic battle between Osaka Tsubaki and Luzheng Society—ever since the historically prestigious and strongest team in the Osaka region, PL Academy, was banned due to bullying incidents within the team, it has basically been these two schools taking turns winning the various Osaka competitions, without many exceptions.

As Osaka Tsubaki was always considered Waseda’s biggest imagined rival, naturally, Waseda’s players also closely watched their matches—they were rooting for Osaka Tsubaki, because deep down, they hoped for a chance to take revenge.

At this moment, Lin Guanglai sat alone at the back of the crowd, watching the recording of yesterday’s Iwate Conference final.

At the Iwate Conference, Hanamaki East fought all the way to the final but ultimately lost 3:5 to their opponent, meaning Ohtani Shohei’s high school baseball career had come to an end.

Watching Ohtani Shohei weep bitterly in front of the camera, Lin Guanglai sighed—to lose such a rival was a bit regrettable for him.

On TV, the game’s progress closely resembled last year’s; although Osaka Tsubaki gave up a run early, they quickly used their powerful lineup to extend the lead to an insurmountable level.

By the end of the sixth inning, the score had already reached 10:1—in a professional baseball game, the trailing team’s manager would probably have already swapped out the remaining players and let long-time benchwarmers clean up the innings.

However, in the case of a once-in-a-lifetime ticket to Koshien, Luzheng Society’s players showed great determination: in the bottom of the eighth inning, they seized the opportunity as Fujinami Jintaro tired, launching a wave of attacks to claw back 7 runs, bringing uncertainty back to the game!

Just as Osaka Tsubaki’s fans thought last year’s tragedy might repeat, this time, Sawada Keisuke, who came off the bench, didn’t falter—he successfully completed the task assigned by the manager, maintaining their 3-run lead for Osaka Tsubaki.

As the TV announced the end of the game, Lin Guanglai stood up and called to his teammates:

"Alright everyone, time for practice—at Koshien, we have a score to settle with Osaka Tsubaki!"