Chapter 124: Chapter 23: Advancing to the Final Four
There’s no denying that Tokai University Takarazuka’s performance today was commendable:
In defense, except for entering the game state a bit slow in the first half of the opening inning, allowing Waseda Jitsugyo to seize an opportunity to score;
In the following parts of the game, they precisely targeted the weakness of the significant gap between the front and back of the Waseda Jitsugyo’s lineup, and executed precise strikes.
The game has now completed eight innings, with the score at 2:1.
The match’s statistical data shows that Waseda Jitsugyo left as many as 13 runners on base today: every time the top of the lineup hit safely and successfully got on base, the bottom lineup failed to provide the corresponding firepower, causing a lot of offensive opportunities to be wasted.
In the top of the ninth inning, with the lineup turning over, Chongxin Shen Zhong once again took on the role of lead-off batter, tasked with clearing a path for the team.
Unfortunately, this time, he wasn’t as lucky as he was at the beginning of the game:
Stable defense and continuous good pitching gave Ooi Shingo massive confidence, which also reflected in the quality of his pitches—In his first at-bat in the bottom of the ninth inning, the quality of the two pitches Ooi Shingo threw earlier was extremely high, with speeds exceeding 135km/h while precisely pinning down at the edge of the strike zone.
One fastball came close to the inner corner edge near the arm, and another slider with exceptionally controlled movement on the outer corner, Ooi Shingo already achieved two strikes in this at-bat.
Under the pressure from the pitcher, Chongxin Shen Zhong was pushed to the brim—facing a 0 balls and 2 strikes situation, he had to stay tightly on each pitch, and sometimes even had to force himself to swing at pitches that looked like bad balls.
Under such immense pressure, even Waseda Jitsugyo’s immovable first batter couldn’t withstand it: when the count turned to 2 balls and 2 strikes, Ooi Shingo threw a highly tempting high fastball, successfully deceiving Chongxin Shen Zhong into swinging and missing.
The lead-off batter was struck out, which dealt a considerable blow to Waseda Jitsugyo’s offense in this half-inning.
Fortunately, the subsequent batter, Matsunaga Kenta, stood firm under pressure, facing the combined slaughter attempt by Tokai University Takarazuka’s pitchers, Matsunaga Kenta managed to draw a walk and advance to first base by staunchly keeping to the discipline of the plate.
Then, during Kenshu Yasuda’s turn at bat, Matsunaga Kenta also followed the base coach’s instructions, seizing an error in Tokai University Takarazuka’s defense to successfully steal second base.
After completing this steal, Kenshu Yasuda continued to fulfill his responsibility well: he seized an outside pitch thrown by Ooi Shingo and swung to hit it into a sacrifice fly to the outfield.
With this sacrifice fly, Matsunaga Kenta, who was originally on second base, advanced to third base with large strides.
With two outs and a runner on third, it’s up to Lin Guanglai as the fourth batter.
The teammates sacrificed two outs, advancing to the scoring position before his turn in the lineup—feeling the deep trust from his teammates, Lin Guanglai felt he must not let them down.
Seeing Lin Guanglai step up to prepare to bat, the expressions of Tokai University Takarazuka’s players turned somewhat grim:
If during the summer, Lin Guanglai’s outstanding performance benefitted from being unresearched; then since the autumn tournament, despite being under the focused scrutiny of all major colleges in Koshien, Lin Guanglai continued to deliver exceptional performances, even more composed than in summer, which inevitably called for vigilance.
On the field, as the catcher of the team, Asakawa Shinji was loudly directing his teammates’ defensive positioning, suddenly turning the defense of Tokai University Takarazuka into a state of alarm.
There’s no choice, it’s the top of the ninth inning.
If with a man on third, Lin Guanglai hits another scoring single, Waseda Jitsugyo’s lead would expand to 2 points—knowing that in the bottom of the ninth inning, Tokai University Takarazuka’s lineup just happens to turn to the lower part; should Waseda Jitsugyo send Lin Guanglai to close the game, no matter how hard they try, they may never make up a 2-point deficit.
"Play Ball." With two outs and a runner on first, the home plate umpire signaled to start the game.
Standing in the batter’s box, Lin Guanglai set his batting stance, the bat in his hand gently swayed with his body, eyes firmly fixed on the pitcher, watching the opponent’s every move.
On the pitcher’s mound, Ooi Shingo was feeling somewhat anxious, constantly rubbing his palm back and forth on his pants—facing a powerful batter at a critical moment, the pressure on him as a pitcher was indeed immense.
Unlike the media commentators and spectators who speak only in general terms, the players of Tokai University Takarazuka, who competed on the same field as Lin Guanglai, were the most acutely aware of his oppressive power.
In this game, most of the time when Lin Guanglai stepped into the batter’s box, he managed to hit safely; even if he got struck out or tagged out once, he’d come back strong in the next at-bat;
What made Tokai University Takarazuka’s players most uncomfortable was that he performed better as the game reached critical moments, almost never missing an opportunity to expand the team’s lead—of the two points Waseda Jitsugyo scored in this game, one was his RBI in the top of the first inning, and the other was the run he scored himself.
Ooi Shingo took a deep breath and then pitched the baseball.
At the moment the baseball was released from the pitcher’s fingertips, Lin Guanglai’s mind had already made a decision—he was going to swing decisively at this pitch.
For some unknown reason, the previous precise control shown by Ooi Shingo failed against this fourth batter; he threw a fastball right over the sweet spot of the plate—not even reaching the speed of some pitching machines in batting cages at about 130km/h.
As the ball came, Lin Guanglai lightly lifted his front foot, then took a step and turned his body, swinging his bat towards the direction of the pitch.
"Clang!"
The metal bat struck the baseball fiercely, the white ball, which was heading towards home plate, changed direction under the massive force, swiftly flying past home plate towards right field.
Due to focusing on hitting a stable RBI, Lin Guanglai did not use a high angle approach; the lined ball landed deep in the infield, then bounced towards the right fielder.
In the top of the ninth inning, Lin Guanglai’s timely hit scored Matsunaga Kenta from third base successfully; at the same time, the score of this game changed to 3:1.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!!!!"
"Amazing, Guanglai!!!"
"Truly our genius freshman captain!!!"
The players in the Waseda Industries dugout were jubilant, one by one, excitedly shouting towards Lin Guanglai standing on the first base bag.
Meanwhile, the players of Tokai University Takarazuka felt a sense of defeat deep inside—although often the gap between players isn’t vast enough to be termed as talent; when the gap in talent was torn open and bloodily revealed before them, the Tokai University Takarazuka’s players still felt discontent.
Affected by Lin Guanglai’s RBI hit in the top of the ninth, Tokai University Takarazuka’s morale plummeted to the bottom—in the bottom of the ninth, their lower lineup couldn’t create much of a wave against Waseda Jitsugyo’s solid defense.
In the end, thanks to Lin Guanglai’s two RBIs, the prestigious Waseda Industries of the West Tokyo Region triumphed with a score of 3:1, becoming the first team to advance to the semifinals of the autumn tournament this season.
In the upcoming matches, even stronger opponents await them.