"Clang!" The bat swung, and the baseball was propelled back in the direction it ca from by a massive force, piercing through Waseda Jitsugyo’s first base defense, only to be caught by Yagaki Kentaro in the right field.
Seeing the baseball thrown to second base, Sho Hango gave up on the idea of advancing further and stood on the first base bag, waving and smiling at his teammates on the opposite side.
Sho Hango was very happy: what made him happy was not only hitting a base hit himself but also the fact that their Nihon University had completely seen through Lin Guanglai’s pitching strategy—a pitcher who loses the mystery of pitch selection will inevitably be conquered by batters, no matter how strong.
On the pitcher’s mound, although Lin Guanglai was slightly annoyed about being hit for a base hit despite having the advantage of two strikes, he didn’t take it to heart. After all, as a starting pitcher, getting hit for a base hit is nothing unusual and doesn’t require too much attention.
But when the fourth batter, Hirao Toshitaka, also hit a base hit, advancing himself to first base while sending his teammate on base into the scoring zone, Lin Guanglai suddenly realized sothing.
He requested a tiout from the chief umpire, raised his hand to signal his teammates to stay calm, and gave himself so ti to think.
"Hmm... is it the repeated face-offs that have allowed them to predict my pitching habits based on data..."
Upon reflection, only this explanation seed to fit the current situation, especially since the batters from Nihon University were already quite strong, allowing them to hit consecutive base hits if they anticipated the pitch path.
Thinking of this, Lin Guanglai suddenly laughed—though this approach would indeed make pitching more challenging, if Nihon University’s batters thought they could defeat him completely in this way, they were a bit too naive.
On the stands on the third base side, Nihon University’s supporters beca excited: facing Lin Guanglai, achieving such a scoring opportunity in the first inning of the final was beyond many of their expectations.
In the batter’s box, fifth hitter Takayama Shun kept swinging his bat, looking eager to send his teammate back to ho plate with a hit.
However, the result that awaited him was—
"Strike!"
"Strike!!"
"Strike!!!"
The chief umpire’s three swift calls pulled Takayama Shun, the baserunners, and Nihon University’s fans back to reality: three consecutive fastballs, demonstrating a heavy sword without an edge, great skill in simplicity. Lin Guanglai used the most direct and effective thod to strike out Takayama Shun, defusing the crisis and ending the half-inning.
After the half-inning concluded, Nihon University’s batters returned to their dugout, preparing for the offense-defense exchange.
The expression on their faces clearly showed that these players were quite unwilling:
With two baserunners applying pressure and the strongest power hitter in the batting box, by all logic, they should have at least scored 1 run;
Yet the reality was that they suffered consecutive strikeouts from the opposing pitcher, leaving two stranded baserunners, walking back to their dugout amidst the enthusiastic applause for the opponent from the onlookers.
At the entrance to the dugout, Yoshinaga Kentarou, holding a glove in one hand, continuously comforted his returning teammates:
"Guys, don’t be discouraged—the ga has just begun. Doesn’t this inning show that our strategy is working? If we keep playing like this, scoring is only a matter of ti."
After saying this, he confidently added quickly:
"And also, you can trust completely—I will do everything I can to help maintain our lead in scores!"
Bottom of the first inning, Waseda Jitsugyo’s first offensive turn of the entire ga—compared to Nihon University, which had significantly adjusted its batting order against Lin Guanglai, Izumi Minoru chose to remain unchanged;
Of course, this could also be because Waseda Jitsugyo’s strongest starting nine were mostly left-handed hitters, and no adjustnts were needed.
From the actual ga situation, Yoshinaga Kentarou’s words of encouragent were not just empty talk:
Facing Waseda Jitsugyo’s first three hitters, Yoshinaga Kentarou exhibited his excellent competitive form and powerful strikeout ability, taking only 13 pitches to strike out all three batters from Waseda Jitsugyo successively, with three up, three down, declaring the return of the Shengong champion.
Seeing Yoshinaga Kentarou deliver a blow, Lin Guanglai naturally wasn’t going to be outdone. He chose to let his pitching do the talking, responding with a three up, three down against Nihon University’s mid-to-late lineup—standing on the pitcher’s mound, Lin Guanglai’s composed stance seed to be telling Nihon University’s batters:
"Don’t forget who is the champion of the Senbatsu High School Baseball Tournant—you are the challengers!"
After taking care of this inning’s batters, Lin Guanglai swiftly ran back from the pitcher’s mound to the first base side dugout, barely catching his breath before having to start putting on his batting gear and protective equipnt.
As a dual-role athlete excelling in both pitching and batting, this demanded a lot of his physical stamina—if not for his extra physical training every day since entering high school, he might not have made the technical progress but would have collapsed physically long ago.
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