CHAPTER 80: CHAPTER 80: TARGETED

Top of the second inning, it’s Narita’s turn to bat, with their clean-up batter, Kondo Tomoya, stepping up to the plate.

Because Kondo, the clean-up batter, is a left-handed hitter, Lin Guanglai decided to increase the proportion of outside pitches—when a batter faces an unfamiliar pitcher for the first time, a combination of outside fastballs and sliders can usually make it difficult for them to distinguish the type of pitch.

This approach proved effective: after quickly gaining a 0-2 advantage, Lin Guanglai continued to press Kondo Tomoya, using an outside slider to force the batter to swing.

Kondo Tomoya hit a ground ball towards the second and third base direction—the baseball was easily scooped up by shortstop Matsunaga Kenta, who then threw it accurately into the first baseman’s glove for an out.

One out.

The next batter up for Narita is their fifth batter, Takahashi Kyu. In the early part of this at-bat, he managed to engage in a standoff with Lin Guanglai, reaching a 2-2 count, with the pitcher having a slight edge.

On the crucial fifth pitch, Lin Guanglai chose his most trusted and most complete breaking ball—the curveball, as the decisive pitch for this at-bat.

Because the previous pitches were fastballs or quick sliders, this unexpected curveball caught Takahashi Kyu off guard, and he didn’t have time to swing.

The batter struck out, two outs.

Subsequently, the sixth batter, Mukai Yuji, met a similar fate—after a 2-2 count, he was deceived by an outside pitch and hit a ground ball that led to an easy out at first by Waseda Real’s infield.

For two consecutive half-innings, Narita’s offense went down one, two, three without even a single baserunner.

During the changeover, Waseda Real’s players surrounded Lin Guanglai as they exited the field, praising his quality pitching;

On Narita’s side, the players didn’t show any sign of disappointment; instead, they were filled with fighting spirit, continuing to exchange thoughts while returning to the dugout.

In fact, the Narita players were far more confident than they appeared on camera—after Waseda Real confirmed their advancement, Narita’s team had begun studying Lin Guanglai.

With the help of the baseball team members, Narita’s coach Ooshima Jishin had been watching Lin Guanglai’s pitching footage since yesterday, gaining a general understanding of his pitching and strategic habits—

These habits might be subconscious actions that even Lin Guanglai himself hadn’t realized; and once Narita, as his opponent, grasped these habits, they could perform precise strikes against the pitcher by making slight confirmations on the field at critical moments.

Ooshima Jishin admitted that Lin Guanglai is indeed a genius, and in over fifteen years of coaching, it was the first time he’d seen such an extraordinarily talented freshman;

But no matter how powerful, he is ultimately just a freshman—lacking sufficient game experience, with not fully developed physical capabilities, and his pitch repertoire not yet fully polished, these are objective issues that require time to refine.

The future may belong to Lin Guanglai, but in today’s match, Ooshima Jishin and his Narita team were determined to take the victory, a belief he held firmly.

Moreover, Ooshima Jishin felt that he didn’t ask for much—as long as Narita could gain even a one-point lead, he had confidence in maintaining the score until the end!

Ooshima Jishin’s confidence not only came from his deep analysis and research of Waseda Real, but also from his own ace pitcher’s excellent competitive form, which further fueled his intense desire to win:

In the bottom of the second inning, even when facing Waseda Real’s central batting lineup, Nakagawa Ryosuke’s pitching remained effortless:

Even though Onoda Shunsuke managed to hit the outside slider, he didn’t complete the swing perfectly, and the kinetic energy didn’t fully transfer to the bat—the baseball was hit into a harmless blooper caught easily by the fielder covering second base.

Ryouta Tsuchiya, known for his powerful hitting style, had a preference for swinging hard at fastballs—this tendency was identified by Nakagawa Ryosuke. Against such hitters, Nakagawa increased the ratio of changeups in his pitch mix, using sudden changes in speed to strike him out.

Even when Nakagawa experienced considerable control issues, walking Sugai Natsuki and Fukasawa Kouta with four-pitch walks, he quickly reclaimed his composure upon facing the eighth batter Kakiwara Yosuke—three consecutive fastballs, precisely placed inside, high, and outside corners, and Kakiwara found no chance to swing before striking out.

The teams switched sides again, bringing Waseda Real back on defense at the top of the third inning.

In this half-inning, Lin Guanglai clearly sensed the game’s intensity ramping up, even though he was facing Narita’s lower lineup.

In short, the duration of the standoff between pitcher and batter grew longer:

"Clang!" Narita’s eighth batter Daiki Anzui swung the bat and sent the ball out of bounds, making it a full count of 3 balls and 2 strikes—after an effortful resolution of one batter, Lin Guanglai had already thrown seven pitches in this second at-bat of the third inning with Daiki Anzui.

His opponent visibly got better at detecting pitch changes, syncing better with the ball, consistently hitting foul balls out of bounds one after another.

On the eighth pitch, Lin Guanglai threw a curveball, trying to use a breaking ball to catch his opponent off guard—but Daiki Anzui precisely captured his intention, swinging his bat to solidly connect with the ball for a base hit in front of the left field.

As one of the most commonly used breaking balls, curveballs with their big vertical movement can indeed deceive batters; nevertheless, everything has advantages and disadvantages—once the opponent reads the pitch, the slower speed of a curveball makes it the easiest pitch type to hit for a long shot.

Fortunately, Daiki Anzui was a less adept hitter in the lower part of the lineup, resulting in only a single at first—for more powerful and skilled sluggers, that pitch could easily have been a double, or even a home run.

Sensing the shift in the field dynamics, coach Izumi Minoru immediately called for a timeout, sending a messenger player onto the field, gathering the infield players to relay a tactical instruction.

Once the timeout ended, Waseda Real’s players returned to their defensive positions, but from their slightly advanced positions, it was evident they were looking to secure a double play on the upcoming pitch.

However, the on-field situation did not progress as Waseda Real desired.

Faced with the ninth batter Nakagawa Ryosuke, Waseda Real’s infield made a major blunder: handling Nakagawa Ryosuke’s ground ball towards third base, Chongxin Shen Zhong attempted a throw to first but ended up overthrowing it, not only failing to put out Nakagawa at first but allowing Daiki Anzui to advance all the way to third.

As the lineup rotation reset, Narita’s leadoff Ooki Ryouta managed to engage Lin Guanglai through an eight-pitch standoff before Lin Guanglai threw the fourth ball of the count.

In the batter’s box, Ooki Ryouta tossed his bat outside the field, then jogged to first base.

Seeing the situation on the field, commentator Tanaka Shuji expressed concern for Waseda Real:

"One out, bases loaded—Waseda Industries is facing their biggest challenge in this game so far."