CHAPTER 81: CHAPTER 81: THE IMPENETRABLE WALL NAMED NAKAGAWA RYOSUKE

Faced with Waseda Industries, although the stronger Narita was the more favored side, their coach and players still maintained a humble posture.

With one out and bases loaded, Narita chose the safest way to score: the second batter, Oka Miechi, resolutely executed the coach’s instructions and delivered a high-quality sacrifice bunt to send the runner from third base back to home plate.

Two outs, runners on second and third, the crisis for Waseda Jitsugyo continued.

Narita’s third batter, Kaneko Yuuta, stepped into the batting area again.

The baseball flew from Lin Guanglai’s hand, heading straight for home plate—"Whoosh," before Kaneko Yuuta could react, the ball had already landed in the catcher’s mitt.

"Pop."

"Strike."

The speed displayed on the outfield’s electronic scoreboard was 147 km/h—Lin Guanglai chose to exert full effort on this pitch, achieving his fastest pitch speed up to this point, all to seize a strike count.

In many cases, the fastest pitch speed number does not accurately reflect a pitcher’s actual skill level, because being able to reach this speed doesn’t mean the pitcher can control the ball within the strike zone at that speed—many high school-level pitchers keep their pitches well below their fastest speed in games to ensure control; even Lin Guanglai, when pitching over 145 km/h, encounters notable control issues.

This pitch carried some element of risk, but fortunately, he won the gamble.

On the second pitch, Lin Guanglai chose to slightly lower his speed—he swung his arm and sent the baseball directly to Kaneko Yuuta’s inside low position, a spot that made him extremely uncomfortable, unable to complete the swing, and thus he let the ball pass.

Two strikes.

Taking lessons from previous prolonged struggles with batters, Lin Guanglai delivered a new signal to Tsuchiya Ryota. Before pitching, Lin Guanglai lightly breathed deeply, trying to relax—losing one run, runners on second and third, the team couldn’t afford more hits.

Suddenly, Lin Guanglai moved—he squared up, then lifted his front foot high, leaned forward with his lower body, propelling his arm, and the baseball "zoomed" as it flew from his hand.

Kaneko Yuuta chose to chase the baseball, but by the time he completed his swing, the baseball had just entered the strike zone.

"Strike!"

"Three outs, change of sides."

Seeing Kaneko Yuuta’s empty swing, both Lin Guanglai and Tsuchiya Ryota shouted simultaneously—the players of Waseda Jitsugyo had been under pressure since the middle of this inning, now they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

In the batter’s box, Kaneko Yuuta only then realized—he was completely fooled by this first-year from Waseda Jitsugyo! This was clearly a change-up, yet the pre-game information didn’t indicate he could throw a change-up?

Regarding this, Lin Guanglai could only say this pitch also had a gambling aspect—if his fastball could score 90 points, the mastery of this change-up might only be 40 points, choosing this approach to solve the batter is basically a one-time use.

"Lin Guanglai, it’s him again!"

"Facing the situation with bases loaded, although he gave up one run, I feel under such circumstances, this was the best possible result for Waseda Jitsugyo!"

"That final daring change-up was impressive—a big heart is needed to showcase a weapon not fully mastered by Lin on such a critical occasion; he already has the big heart required to become a top-tier player!"

"Narita left two men on base—but with the current score, I imagine this is what they hoped for."

"Wonderful, the game is getting more and more exciting!"

In the commentary booth, Tanaka Shuji and Takumi Tanchisha expressed their views on the game, one after another.

On the first base side, Narita High School’s player area.

Ooshima Jishin held onto the railing at the entry of the player area with one hand, feeling regretful for the team.

A bases-loaded opportunity with one out, the team managed to score only one run; this was indeed a bit low. But after he turned around and saw his team’s ace joking around, Ooshima Jishin’s mood improved greatly.

"Well, with Nakagawa, even a one-run lead counts as leading."

Afterward, the teams exchanged sides again, the game moved to the bottom of the third inning, and the stadium broadcast began:

"Bottom of the third inning, Waseda Jitsugyo’s offense, coming to bat, number nine, pitcher, Mr. Lin."

Lin Guanglai was going to serve as the lead-off batter for Waseda Jitsugyo’s offense this inning.

As soon as Lin Guanglai stepped onto the field, Koshien became restless—being the only first-year player in history to hit three home runs in a single tournament, he deserved this kind of treatment.

Amid the expectations of the entire audience, Lin Guanglai slowly walked into the batter’s box—his eyes focused on the pitcher’s mound not far in front of his body, Narita’s ace pitcher Nakagawa Ryosuke stood like a tall wall there.

At the moment the head umpire announced the game’s start, Nakagawa Ryosuke’s body initiated—with a swift swing of his right hand in front of his body, the baseball shot quickly from his hand.

"Pop."

"Strike."

On the first pitch of this half-inning, Nakagawa Ryosuke decisively chose to attack Lin Guanglai’s inside corner, the 140 km/h fastball was accurately thrown into the strike zone, tightly pressed against the strike zone’s borderline.

Facing such fast and tricky angle inside pitches, Lin Guanglai couldn’t swing, nor possibly swing—but he also didn’t relinquish hitting space out of fear.

Seeing Lin Guanglai’s resolute refusal to retreat even a step, Nakagawa Ryosuke just smiled slightly and then delivered the second pitch with smooth and fluent motion.

"Whoosh."—same as the first pitch, a fastball aimed squarely at Lin Guanglai’s inside corner.

"Pop."—same as the first pitch, Lin Guanglai just held the bat standing still, choosing not to chase the ball.

With the umpire’s "Strike" call, the count immediately became 2 strikes, no balls—the pitcher held a significant advantage.

Facing such a situation where the pitcher persistently attacks the inside corner, Lin Guanglai, who is himself a pitcher, knew there wasn’t much he could do, so he symbolically took two small steps back, slightly leaving some room on the outside corner.

The ball flew over once again, but this time the path was obvious, an outside bad ball. While Lin Guanglai chose to let it go, the count changed to 1 ball, 2 strikes.

The speed of this ball reached 144 km/h, if the path had shifted slightly inward, Lin Guanglai would’ve likely succumbed to a strikeout fate.

The next ball came again.

Inside pitch!

This time, Lin Guanglai, who had prepared beforehand, finally swung the bat, propelled jointly by his lower body and his hip, sending the bat in the direction of the ball.

"Clang!" The moment the bat made contact with the baseball, Lin Guanglai realized this ball was probably doomed—there was a clear sensation of not hitting the sweet spot on the bat, lacking the usual full and pleasurable feeling of hitting.

Sure enough, the baseball flew straight towards the pitcher’s mound as a medium-high fly ball, easily caught by Nakagawa Ryosuke with his long legs and arms.

Ever since the match against Chukyo University, Lin Guanglai had received endless praise from the media; and that inside-the-park home run against Kantou Number One earned him the nickname "Heisei Monster Second Generation"—this skyrocketed Lin Guanglai’s popularity while naturally making him a target of envy: many Narita players approached this game with the mindset of defeating the monster.

Now, the monster collided with a wall, a tall wall named Nakagawa Ryosuke.