In the stadium, the final of this Sumr Koshien is still ongoing, but at this point in the ga, not many people are focusing on the outco of this match:
Even though only five innings have been played, the 7:0 score, as well as the morale of the Koushing Academy players which has already hit rock bottom, clearly indicate that the outco of this match is no longer in question—so might say that there is still plenty of ti left in the ga, and Koushing Academy has ample ti to make a coback, but this is ultimately just a wishful thinking too idealistic:
Setting aside the fact that these players are all participating in a national tournant final for the first ti, from the coaches down to the players, they are already lacking experience. After being dealt several heavy blows by Waseda Jitsugyo, it’s hard for them to rally their spirits. Even if they manage to break through the defenses of Lin Guanglai and Waseda Jitsugyo to narrow the score, the attack demonstrated by the opponent’s lineup in these few innings makes it unlikely that even the most confident Koushing player would dare claim they can surely withstand Waseda Jitsugyo’s upcoming offense.
Although the score is significantly ahead, the batters following Lin Guanglai did not relax because of it. When Yagaki Kentaro and Uesugi Yasuyuki ca to bat, they continued to play as they should, maintaining the aggressiveness that has been constant in this match, constantly wearing down Akita Kyoyoshi’s patience and stamina.
The offense at the bottom of the fifth inning by Waseda Jitsugyo finally halted at the seventh batter, Egami Kenji. Although the ball he hit was fast enough, its direction was too straight, almost sending it directly into the arms of Koushing’s second baseman, Ryunosuke Kashimoto, resulting in a double play out.
Though they didn’t score any points, their persistent batting was not without effect—at the very least, it bought Lin Guanglai ti to rest, allowing him ample ti to sit down, take a sip of water, and calm his excited nerves.
Even in a powerhouse like Major League Baseball in the United States, a perfect ga is often not achieved by the top-star pitchers with the strongest physical abilities—achieving the feat of a perfect ga requires talent, attention to detail, and a bit of luck, all of which are indispensable.
Luck, being such an intangible thing, is sothing Lin Guanglai cannot control. But since he promised Hagiyama Mitsuo to strive for a perfect ga, every detail becos particularly crucial in monts like these to fulfill his promise.
By this point in the ga, Lin Guanglai has already struck out 15 batters, just 12 away from the goal of 27 up, 27 down—based on the opposing lineup distribution, his biggest challenge should co in innings seven and eight when he needs to consecutively face the leading and central batters of Koushing Academy.
Sitting on the bench, he slowly closed his eyes, recalling the previous innings’ encounters, combining them with the materials he reviewed before the ga, Lin Guanglai began calculating in his mind.
"Guanglai, it’s your turn!"
Hearing Uesugi Yasuyuki’s call in his ear, Lin Guanglai slowly opened his eyes, stood up from the bench, stretched his body a bit, then picked up the glove beside him and jogged towards the pitcher’s mound.
In the top half of the sixth inning, he has to face Koushing Academy’s lower lineup batters. Although it didn’t take much effort to deal with them in the previous at-bat, who knows if they will explode in this second at-bat—he doesn’t want his thoughts of pursuing a perfect ga to be dashed by the lower lineup batters right out of the gate.
The top half of the sixth inning progressed relatively smoothly:
Seventh batter, second baseman, Ryunosuke Kashimoto, struck out;
Eighth batter, catcher, Matsuboto Kenji, right fielder high fly ball was caught;
Ninth batter, pitcher, Akita Kyoyoshi, ground ball towards first got him out.
"Lin Guanglai! Beautiful! This breaking ball successfully tricked Akita Kyoyoshi into swinging—and Hagiyuta at first did a nice job, avoiding the sa silly mistake from the last ga."
When Tanaka Shuji in the comntary box saw Akita Kyoyoshi being successfully tagged out at first base, he couldn’t help but raise his arms and cheer, as if this play wasn’t just a regular out, but rather a walk-off out in the bottom of the ninth inning—the commotion was so great that even his partners and guests beside him were startled.
Maeda Masaji cast a questioning glance at him, wanting to know why his partner was so excited; to this, Tanaka Shuji did not answer, rely pointing at the statistics sheet in front of him, signaling his partner to find the answer within.
As the ga nears its end, Tanaka Shuji fears saying sothing inappropriate on air. If by any chance Lin Guanglai misses his potential perfect ga because of it, the culpability would be huge.
Feeling slightly dissatisfied with Tanaka’s secrecy, Maeda Masaji grabbed the statistics on the table and reviewed them carefully with the guest alongside him, Wakayama Yu.
A mont later, Maeda Masaji suddenly raised his head to look in Tanaka Shuji’s direction, his eyes brimming with deep shock.
It was only at this mont that a smug look appeared on Tanaka Shuji’s face—it was as if he were saying, "See, I was the first to discover this matter, how about that?"
Without further bothering to notice his smirking partner, as a seasoned comntator, Maeda Masaji’s first thought now was how to convey this information to the television audience.
It’s absolutely out of the question to point out the fact directly. A perfect ga is such a rare and miracle-like event that happens once in decades, and you must embrace superstition at such tis to not let your premature celebration affect the final outco—if that happened, who knows what crazy things the Takayama fans would do after the ga, and he certainly couldn’t forgive himself.
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