Baseball: A Two-Way Player Chapter 11: The Drawing of Lots

Ti flies, and in the blink of an eye, it’s already June. The weather is gradually getting hotter, and sumr is about to begin.

In Tokyo, a large auditorium is packed with people. Looking around, it’s filled with high school students with dark skin and short monk-like hair, with the occasional female manager mixed in.

A huge banner hangs above the podium in the center of the auditorium, reading "National High School Baseball Championship East and West Tokyo Combined Lottery eting".

—— It is undoubtedly the drawing session for the Tokyo region selection tournant for the Sumr Koshien.

As the political and cultural center of Japan, the Tokyo region has nearly 270 high schools. Due to the concentration of strong teams and many schools, there are two slots available for the Sumr Koshien main tournant.

Depending on their location, these schools are divided into East Tokyo and West Tokyo brackets, with each bracket winner representing East & West Tokyo in the Sumr Koshien tournant.

As one of the entrants in the selection tournant phase, Lin Guanglai naturally followed his senior classmates to the drawing session.

Witnessing such a scene for the first ti, he couldn’t hide his excitent. He kept looking around at the crowd — among them were private powerhouses like Nihon University and Kantou Number One, as well as many public school teams playing for fun and dreams.

Whether public or private, powerhouse or underdog, they all share a common na in this auditorium: high school baseballers working hard for their dreams.

As one of the seeded teams in the West Tokyo region, Waseda Industries will have a bye in the first round and will start playing from the third round.

The reason it’s the third round is because among the 119 high schools in West Tokyo, inevitably two unlucky teams end up together, needing to play one extra match than all other teams — aning the so-called first-round opener is actually a one-on-one drama between two teams; the real matches start from the second round.

"Tsuchiya-sempai, is there any particular opponent you want to face?" Lin Guanglai couldn’t help but feel excited at the sight of the matchup board already divided on the podium and asked Tsuchiya Ryota beside him.

"A particular opponent I want to face... I honestly don’t care," Tsuchiya Ryota touched his chin, then laughed heartily, patting Lin Guanglai on the back loudly, saying: "After all, we’re definitely going to Koshien this year. Just winning every ga is enough, it doesn’t matter who we play against."

As soon as Tsuchiya Ryota finished speaking, a mocking voice ca from behind:

"Tsuchiya, you’re as arrogant as ever! I hope we won’t see you crying after losing to us again this year, hahaha! This year, it’ll definitely be us from East Asia Academy going to Koshien!"

Seeing who it was, Tsuchiya Ryota was instantly furious. He shot up from his seat, charging in the direction of the voice.

"Mihori Yuusuke, you bastard, don’t push it too far! I’m telling you, don’t let face you guys from East Asia Academy this year, or I’ll rip that headscarf of yours to shreds!"

"Hmph, the defeated are still barking away. Need to remind you of last year’s result in the fourth round? It was 10:0 --- you at Waseda Real couldn’t even last 7 innings before we ended the ga early!"

"Damn it, you bastard!!!"

With the quarrel between the two growing louder, even attracting the attention of other schools around, team captain Suzuki Kensuke quickly stepped forward to hold back the heated Tsuchiya Ryota.

However, Mihori Yuusuke from East Asia Academy seed unwilling to stop. Even seeing Suzuki Kensuke approach, he continued to taunt:

"Yo, another defeated one --- Suzuki, as the main player, you should manage your catcher better! How can you play good baseball with that kind of insect? Sigh, I’m also a pitcher, I get you — I think it’s actually not the pitcher’s fault for getting blown away last year; it was mainly the catcher’s problem —"

Just as Mihori Yuusuke continued to spew insults, a righteous iron fist ca crashing down on his head: "Bastard! Who gave you the right to co here and mock us alone! Apologize now!!!"

It was spoken by a rugged-looking, strong-built man --- "Takasugi Masahiro, East Asia Academy’s main player, primary catcher," muttered Tsuchiya Ryota softly into Lin Guanglai’s ear.

After pressing Mihori Yuusuke’s head in apology, Takasugi Masahiro stared directly at Suzuki Kensuke, enunciating every word: "Suzuki, I really look forward to facing you guys again this year. I hope this year’s matchup can be even more intense."

For Takasugi Masahiro’s tactics, Suzuki Kensuke also t his gaze, replying neither humbly nor arrogantly: "I feel the sa way. I hope you East Asia Academy make it to our matchup against Waseda Real — and not get eliminated before we even et."

Takasugi Masahiro chuckled lightly, pulling the iron-fisted Mihori Yuusuke back to their own team, leaving behind a parting remark: "Though Yuusuke is impolite, he got one thing right —— that is, the one representing West Tokyo at Koshien this year will definitely be us, East Asia Academy!"

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With the host’s opening remarks concluded, the drawing officially began.

First up was the drawing for the seeded teams: the ten seeded high schools with byes in the first round of the West Tokyo region will be randomly assigned to 8 large brackets and 16 small brackets.

As the drawing proceeded on stage, there was a myriad of reactions below:

Traditional powerhouses like Waseda Real and Nihon University Third High School naturally held no particular thoughts about the draw — going to Koshien ans having to defeat all the teams present, so the draw results hardly matter;

The slightly weaker schools hoped to avoid the powerhouse-filled brackets — in the single-ga elimination format of the Sumr Koshien selection tournant, avoiding strong teams would significantly increase their chances of an upset, and with a mix of skill and luck, they might create a miracle;

For those teams with even less strength, so hoped to face off against strong opponents to test their skill gap; so wished for a good draw to secure at least one victory; and most were here simply to enjoy the joy baseball brings them.

As representatives from each school began drawing, the first chosen was Japan University Heqiu High School, which entered the first bracket with no seeded teams. Cheers erupted from Heqiu’s section, as it was undoubtedly a good draw for them.

Similarly, there was Sakura irin High School, like Heqiu, their second bracket also didn’t have a seeded team — a significant advantage.

In the ensuing third bracket, the first climax of this year’s West Tokyo selection tournant appeared: seeded school Nihon University Second High School was placed together with this selection’s frontrunner, the runner-up of this year’s Spring Koshien — Nippon University Three — wailing ca from the position of Nippon University Two; anwhile, Nippon University Three’s section had no reaction.

As the drawing process sped up, seed schools were gradually placed into different brackets.

Soon, only three schools remained in the seed pool: Soka High School, East Asia Academy, and Waseda Industrial School.

Seeing the current draw, Kenta Tsuchiya next to Lin Guanglai grew excited, clenching his fists and closing his eyes, murmuring upwards, "Assign East Asia Academy to us... Assign East Asia Academy to us... Assign East Asia Academy to us..."

Though Suzuki Kensuke, representing the team on stage, remained expressionless, so thoughts inevitably crossed his mind.

In last year’s West Tokyo selection, Waseda Real and East Asia Academy t in the fourth round — back then, in his second year, Suzuki Kensuke started as a pitcher but got obliterated during the ga:

East Asia Academy’s batting line took 10 points off him in just two and a half innings — according to the selection tournant’s early end rule of 10 runs in 5 innings and 7 runs in 7 innings, the ga concluded by the sixth inning.

Suzuki Kensuke could never forget the sight of third-year seniors crying after losing that ga — the dreamland of Koshien was sothing they couldn’t even touch.

Now in his third year, Suzuki Kensuke experiences this even more deeply — despite being a West Tokyo powerhouse, Waseda Real hasn’t been to Koshien for four consecutive years, and he still doesn’t know what the wind or soil of Koshien is like.

"Let us end up in the sa bracket as East Asia Academy!" he silently wished in his heart.

The slip indicating the bracket number slowly unfolded in his hand, and Suzuki Kensuke’s usually expressionless face showed a hint of a smile; lifting his head to look at Takasugi Masahiro, also representing a team, he found the other staring back, full of fighting spirit.

East Asia Academy, the 7th bracket; Waseda Industries, the 8th bracket.

Based on the zoning, as long as both can break through their respective brackets, they will face off again in the quarterfinals — a rematch of last sumr.

Below, Tsuchiya Ryota, seeing this result, cheered loudly; as the only first-year entrant, Lin Guanglai looked at the seniors around him, each wearing the sa excited expression as if announcing the sa thing:

"If this is the last sumr, then this really is the perfect script."