Tokyo, a certain place.
The bustling auditorium is now filled with mbers of various school baseball teams: 119 high schools from West Tokyo, 150 high schools from East Tokyo, more than 5,000 people gathered here.
This is Lin Guanglai’s second ti as a mber of the Waseda Industries baseball team coming to the Tokyo Region tournant lottery eting; however, unlike last year, this ti he would be taking the stage as the team’s captain to draw the lots himself.
Due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, this year’s Tokyo Region tournant does not include seeded teams, even top-tier teams like Waseda Jitsugyo and Nihon University must start from the first round—high temperatures, intense competition, and short rest intervals are a significant test for all participating teams.
The entire event will last about half a month, and only one team can break through to go to Koshien—winner takes all, loser eats dust, this is the passionate yet cruel sumr event of youth.
When stepping onto the stage to draw lots, Lin Guanglai felt a surge of emotion: at this ti last year, he was a young junior beside his seniors; Waseda Jitsugyo was rely a once-famous team that had fallen from glory for four years in Sumr甲;
However, now, at the mont he stepped onto the main stage, the eyes of thousands of people in the audience all focused on him—Lin Guanglai had transford from an unknown figure into a superstar in high school baseball; Koshien was no longer the final Chapter of the Waseda Jitsugyo players’ dreams, national domination was the ultimate goal.
As the paper with the number of his section slowly opened in Lin Guanglai’s hand, the sign with "Waseda Real" was placed on the huge matchup board.
At the sa ti, a sudden burst of groans erupted from a certain direction below the stage; then ca the jeers of school players watching the commotion with delight.
"Hahahahahahaha——"
Qi Ming Academy, Waseda Real’s first-round opponent, their players were engulfed by a sense of defeat akin to life being worse than death—although baseball is a sport full of miracles, if you really asked the players of Qi Ming Academy to defeat Waseda Real, they probably couldn’t even imagine it in their dreams.
July 13, 2011, Upper Yoyogi Park Baseball Field.
Waseda Industries, first base side, offense first.
Qi Ming Academy, third base side, offense later.
Despite the considerable gap in skill levels between the teams, the unpredictability of sumr competitions made Izumi Minoru dare not rotate as he did in spring—Waseda Real sent out their strongest starting lineup, with Lin Guanglai starting as the pitcher, determined to secure the first win of the sumr season.
In this match, facing opponents far below their level, Waseda Real entered the ga slowly:
In the first two innings, despite Lin Guanglai demonstrating a stellar six-up-six-down performance in defense, the offensive line struggled to maintain montum, continuously being stifled by Qi Ming Academy, leaving a large number of runners stranded on bases.
Izumi Minoru was very dissatisfied with his players’ performance—therefore, after the second inning ended, he loudly reprimanded them in the players’ area.
"Look at yourselves!!! Do you think you look like a team aiming for Koshien?!!!"
"With this kind of performance on offense, I think you might as well forget Koshien! Just get knocked out in the first round and go ho to sleep instead!!!"
Thanks to their outstanding performance since spring, it had been a long ti since Waseda Real’s players felt the full wrath of their coach; facing the long-forgotten storm of reprimands, besides trembling, the players secretly resolved to showcase their abilities in the next half-inning.
As it turned out, when Waseda Real regained their offensive rhythm and consistency, few teams in the West Tokyo area could match them:
Matsunaga Kenta, who was the first at-bat, hit a double, helping the team seize the scoring zone right away.
The third batter, Kenshu Yasuda, capitalized on a mistake by Qi Ming Academy’s starting pitcher, swinging with all his might to send the ball out of the park, bringing both himself and Matsunaga Kenta on base back to ho plate.
The cleanup hitter, Lin Guanglai, quickly followed with a ho run; after months of intense practice, he had made significant progress in mastering the rotation technique, hitting this ball with ease, almost effortlessly batting out an opposite-field ho run, further extending the lead.
A 3-run advantage was hardly satisfactory to the Waseda Real players who had been harshly reprimanded; with their offensive power on full display, they didn’t let up, continuously launching wave after wave of attacks like a tide, leaving Qi Ming Academy’s defense players montarily bewildered.
By the ti Lin Guanglai stepped into the batter’s box for the second ti in this inning, with two outs and no one on base, the score gap had already widened to nine runs.
This ti, the baseball flew out of the right field again.
to 0!!!
Being blasted for 10 runs in a single inning, such an overwhelming gap shattered Qi Ming Academy players’ morale—they were even hoping for a major upset before this inning; who would have thought that the hard-won hope would be completely shattered just half an inning later.
Subsequently, Lin Guanglai delivered another three-up-three-down performance in the bottom of the third inning; in the first three and a half innings, he achieved three three-up-three-downs, securing 7 strikeouts, rendering Qi Ming Academy’s batters into re electric fans before him.
Seeing the opposing team’s spirit completely crushed, with the outco of the ga decided, Izumi Minoru began to make personnel adjustnts: Lin Guanglai was replaced after pitching 3 innings, having thrown less than 30 pitches, the intensity of this ga was even less than their usual intrasquad match.
In the top of the fourth inning, the substitute players refused to be outdone, scoring 2 more runs from Qi Ming, further widening the gap to 12 to 0.
Uchida Saint, who ca on as a substitute, pitched one inning without conceding a run before resting.
In the fifth inning, Tanaka Justice made his debut in his high school career: although he gave up 1 run to Qi Ming’s batters, his performance was still comndable, maintaining the 10-run lead to end the ga early.
As Qi Ming’s last batter was out at first base, the ga ended prematurely with Waseda Industries defeating Qi Ming Academy 12 to 1, marking a strong start to their sumr season.
With the overwhelming victory over Qi Ming Academy as a symbol, Waseda Real, the spring Senbatsu champions, continued to march forward relentlessly towards the goal of national domination, pursuing consecutive spring and sumr titles.
Round 1, Waseda Real 12:1 Qi Ming, 5 innings, early conclusion.
Round 2, Waseda Real 10:0 Matsutani, 6 innings, early conclusion.
Round 3, Waseda Real 14:0 Fuchu, 5 innings, early conclusion.
Compared to spring, sumr Waseda Real displayed even stronger combat power, with private and public schools in the West Tokyo area standing no chance against them.
In the eyes of dia, professionals, and supporters of Waseda Real, only Nihon University in the West Tokyo area could pose a threat to their journey towards consecutive spring and sumr titles.
But Nihon University’s ace pitcher, Yoshinaga Kentarou, had not been in great form ever since being overwheld by Waseda Real in the Senbatsu semifinal, completely losing the dominance he had during last year’s Shengong championship—this led people to favor Waseda Real more among the two national-level powerhouse teams.
But unforeseen circumstances arose before the fourth round match against Tokyo tropolitan Showa High School.
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