CHAPTER 89: CHAPTER 89: THE FINAL FOUR EMERGES

With Konan High School’s 10:3 victory over Holy Light Academy, the first match of the semi-finals for this year’s tournament was decided:

The West Tokyo representative, Waseda Industrial School, will face the Okinawa representative, Konan High School, in a day — undoubtedly a high-stakes match that has already caused a sensation among Takayama professionals and fans alike.

Both teams boast star aces on the mound, explosive batting lineups, and coaches with rich experience. On paper, their strengths are almost completely identical.

It is predictable — media favorites against Senbatsu champions, no matter what, this semi-final will be the most watched match of this Summer Koshien so far.

Time moves to the day after the match, following grueling consecutive battles, the Waseda players finally get a moment to rest — the quarterfinal match is spread over two days, with today’s match being in the other half of the bracket.

Due to only one day of rest, the training is focused on recovery like stretching, leg presses, and body relaxation exercises, occasionally interspersed with some offensive and defensive drills — generally speaking, the training foundation is quite relaxed, and the players at the training grounds are chatting and laughing.

A lot of recording equipment is set up on the sidelines to record — with the schedule progressing continually, the Summer Koshien has now boiled down to six remaining teams, and each school’s station is bustling with a multitude of media filming and gathering material.

During their time at Koshien, these ordinary Takayama boys are enjoying treatment that far exceeds that of many professional baseball players — the holy land of baseball, the nationwide attention, it’s not surprising why playing a match at Koshien becomes a dream for countless Japanese baseball youths.

As the only two pitchers left for Waseda, who will start in the next game between Lin Guanglai and Uchida Saint is the question the media is most concerned about — captured through the camera lens were shots of the two pitchers throwing in the bullpen, their condition seemingly good.

Outside the bullpen, Izumi Minoru is conversing with Tsuchiya Ryota — if anyone knows the pitchers’ status best, it’s definitely their closest partner, the catcher.

"Don’t overthink it, next game’s starting pitcher for Waseda Real is definitely going to be second-year Uchida Saint," Wakayama Yu declared confidently in response to his own team’s inquiry at Konan’s training ground.

"You’ve seen Lin Guanglai’s information — putting aside his not fully developed physique, simply his nearly 190 cm height means his pitch consumes significantly more than those average-stature pitchers. His current weight simply cannot support the continued pitching consumption."

"Although his suppression is strong, making him face our lineup as a starter is actually not a wise choice — moreover, Izumi isn’t the type of person who sacrifices students’ futures just for victory."

"So, everyone knows what to do, right?"

"Compared to that freshman, not one of us at Konan is a genius; but baseball isn’t a sport you can easily win by stacking talent alone."

"I hope that from the very first at-bat, you’ll continuously show your determination to your opponents, pressure, pressure — we need to constantly apply stress to Waseda’s defense."

"As long as we can do these, I believe victory will undoubtedly belong to Konan High School!"

Even at the age of 60, when he said these words, Wakayama Yu’s expression was still like that of an eighteen-year-old; his passionate speech equally inspired the Konan team, and the cheers soared over the training ground.

Tsuchiya Ryota revealed the pitchers’ condition to his own team’s superintendent — it’s evident that Lin Guanglai, virtually without much rest since the second round, is indeed somewhat fatigued; as a catcher, Tsuchiya Ryota can sense a noticeable decline in his speed and quality compared to when he first arrived at Koshien.

The freshman pitcher is the team’s future, and premature consumption is harmful to their subsequent growth — moreover, someone as talented as Lin Guanglai shouldn’t excessively expend his gift in high school baseball.

Ultimately, Izumi Minoru decided on the semi-final’s starting pitcher: Uchida Saint will start, and then the decision of when to bring Lin Guanglai will be based on the actual situation on the field — against a strong team like Konan, relying entirely on one pitcher to hold down their batting lineup is unrealistic; pitcher management and the lineup’s state will be the keys to deciding the match’s outcome.

While the two remaining teams are actively preparing, inside Koshien Stadium, two matches in the other half of the bracket are also underway.

The first match on day 13 of the tournament is between Kyushu Academy from Kumamoto Prefecture and the tournament’s second favorite next to Konan, the Kanagawa representative, Tokai University Sagami High School.

The gap in strength between the two sides was evident in the match itself: leveraging their ace Ichiyotai Shintaro’s excellent performance, Tokai University Sagami had established a substantial lead early on — after the first seven innings, Ichiyotai Shintaro had given up only four hits in total.

Despite a subsequent counterattack from Kyushu Academy, capturing three points from an exhausted Ichiyotai Shintaro, Tokai University Sagami soon countered:

At the top of the ninth, Tokai University Sagami unleashed their offense, scoring four runs in half an inning and effectively killing the suspense of the match; in the following bottom ninth, Ichiyotai Shintaro fully exhibited ace prowess, needing only 8 pitches to retire three batters.

Ultimately, the Kanagawa representative Tokai University Sagami defeated the Kumamoto representative Kyushu Academy with a total score of 10:3, becoming the third semi-finalist of this year’s tournament.

The other match was between Niigata representative Niigata Meikun and the host team from Hyogo Prefecture, Hodokusho Academy.

As the host team, the Hodokusho Academy players were greeted with cheers from the crowd upon their emergence from the players’ tunnel — after all, this is Hyogo Prefecture, a location strongly linked to Koshien events and many neutral fans naturally support the local team.

The match itself was uninspiring — the Niigata Meikun’s regional tournament cumulative 35.8% batting average super lineup was completely silent, managing only five hits throughout the match;

while Hodokusho Academy relied on their proud dual-pitching lineup, the right-hander Tamura Ichiro and left-hander Ooshima Ichiro’s joint lock, winning narrowly with a score of 2:1 over Niigata Meikun, securing the last semifinal spot.

With that, the top four of the 92nd Summer Koshien Tournament are all set, the tournament enters its final two days:

On August 20, at 11:00 AM, the high-stakes face-off between Waseda Industrial and Konan will kick off first; after this match, Ichiyotai Shintaro from Tokai University Sagami will face the dual-pitching lineup of Hodokusho Academy.

After more than ten days of rigorous testing, only two of the four teams that emerged from 49 regional champion teams will make it to the final victory, fighting to become the last victor of the summer, to bring home that bright red winner’s flag.

The final showdown is about to begin!