CHAPTER 72: CHAPTER 72: ACCIDENT

The electronic scoreboard hanging high above Koshien Stadium clearly records the current situation on the field:

Bottom of the third inning

Waseda Real: 000

Kantou Number One: 002

The current situation is one out, runners on second and third base.

"Bottom of the third inning, Kantou Number One strikes first after probing for two and a half innings, showcasing their sharp offensive level to their peers in West Tokyo—this is a big crisis moment for Waseda!" On the commentary stand, Tanaka Shuji commented solemnly.

Suzuki Kensuke on the pitcher’s mound was equally serious:

Actually, in the early stages of this game, it was Waseda who first gained the offensive advantage—in the top of the first inning, Kantou Number One’s Shirai Keiichi failed to find his pitching feel, allowing four walks in just half an inning;

However, Waseda failed to seize the great scoring opportunity, first getting caught in a double play, and then Sugai Natsuki’s high fly ball was caught, preventing an early lead.

"Indeed, is missing opportunities bound to be punished..."

During pitching, inevitably some distracting thoughts emerged in his mind, causing a considerable deviation in Suzuki Kensuke’s control—Kantou Number One’s third batter, Ito Shinji, naturally wouldn’t let such a chance pass, swinging and hitting the ball toward the gap between second and third base.

After Matsunaga Kenta, moving up to cover, caught the ball, he didn’t immediately throw it toward first base—the runner on third base was right by his side, needing first to ensure he stayed on the bag.

This slight delay of a few seconds led to a slow-out pace: as the baseball was thrown by Matsunaga Kenta toward first base, flying into the first baseman’s glove, Ito Shinji’s foot happened to step onto the base a moment earlier.

Batter safely on base—1 out, runners on first and third.

Next up was Kantou Number One’s ace batter, Miyashita Akira.

With his appearance, cheers erupted from Kantou Number One’s support stands, accompanied by the brass rendition of the theme song of "Lupin III."

The camera on-site appropriately shifted the lens to Miyashita Akira’s mother in the Alps Stand: this strong woman was tearfully watching her son on the field, still holding a photo of her late husband—in the photo, Miyashita Masahiko still looked young, wearing his professional baseball jersey, his gaze through the frame also fixed on his son on the field.

As the chief umpire signaled the pitcher to start pitching, Suzuki Kensuke and Miyashita Akira, the two aces of their respective schools, commenced their duel.

After some entanglement, the count reached 3 balls and 2 strikes, a full count.

If Miyashita Akira gets on base again, Waseda would face a huge disadvantage of one out and bases loaded—holding onto this thought, Suzuki Kensuke decided to contest with the opponent’s batter within the strike zone.

After communicating with Tsuchiya Ryota using signals, Suzuki Kensuke steadied his support foot, raised his front leg high, leaned forward, lifted his arm and threw the ball.

Whoosh! A fastball over 135 km/h speeded toward the strike zone.

As the ace batter, Miyashita Akira was naturally unwilling to show weakness; the pride of an ace meant he wouldn’t bet on the opponent pitcher’s control mistake in this situation—facing the incoming ball, he swung the bat with a touch of finesse.

"Clang!"

Miyashita Akira precisely hit the incoming baseball, the ball flew back toward the pitcher’s mound.

This sharply hit line drive sped fast, if the pitcher missed it, odds are it would directly breach the infield defense and drop into the outfield’s empty area, forming a double.

"Absolutely, absolutely must not let this ball pass through the pitcher’s mound!"—bearing such thoughts, Suzuki Kensuke lowered his center of gravity, his body instinctively moved toward the direction of the ball.

The baseball indeed was intercepted by Suzuki Kensuke, but he couldn’t directly catch the batter out; just as Suzuki Kensuke wanted to throw the ball toward first base, a piercing, excruciating pain from his wrist momentarily blanked his mind—"It hurts, really it hurts."

Regardless of anything else, Suzuki Kensuke immediately tossed aside his left-hand pitcher’s glove and used his left hand to throw the ball toward first base.

"Smack."—Miyashita Akira was out at first base; but meanwhile, the runner originally on third base for Kantou Number One also ran back to home base, extending the score to 3:0.

Yet at this moment, none of the Waseda players were concerned about the score change—Tsuchiya Ryota, who witnessed the whole event, immediately called a timeout and swiftly rushed to the pitcher’s mound, and other players also flocked from their defensive positions to gather in the center of the field.

Whispers of discussion and cries of astonishment resonated from the stands—briefly, the entire Koshien Stadium underwent a dramatic change.

Sitting on the ground, Suzuki Kensuke pressed tightly with his left hand on his right wrist and said astonishing words in a calm tone to his catcher partner of three years:

"Ryouta... I’m sorry."

"My high school baseball career seems about to end here..."

"Ending without being able to walk alongside everyone to the very last, such a regretful thing..."

Even Tsuchiya Ryota, usually carefree, had an unusual grim look—evidently, as Suzuki Kensuke’s closest partner, he couldn’t accept such a result.

In the player zone, Coach Izumi Minoru realized the grave situation—this accident completely disrupted his pre-game layout, rendering many game plans unimplementable.

Without any hesitation, Izumi Minoru turned around and ordered two relievers on the bench:

"Guanglai, Saint—go warm up."

The game went on a relatively long pause, while the broadcast camera simultaneously replayed the earlier accident.

The two commentators of this match also began discussing it:

"Ah! From the camera’s angle we can see that the fierce hitball by Miyashita hit directly onto Suzuki’s wrist—ouch~, truly a very bad news for Waseda."

"Indeed, compared to this accident, even now the 3-run disadvantage isn’t much of a concern—as long as Waseda’s lineup can quickly adapt to the opponent pitcher, given their offensive power they’re quite capable of catching up to this score;"

"But if the starting pitcher, especially the team’s third-year captain, has to leave the field due to wrist injury, the blow to the team’s morale is massive. Especially since Suzuki is an excellent control-type pitcher—without him, even if Waseda passes today’s hurdle, the subsequent games, it’s unlikely Mr. Lin, a first-year, could endure."

Watching the two pitchers warming up, Izumi Minoru fell into a dilemma—changing pitchers was an inevitable thing, but who exactly should be sent up?

Replacing Lin Guanglai, Izumi Minoru had confidence in his restraint; but if doing so, how would subsequent games be arranged even if they advanced? Should Lin Guanglai, a not yet fully developed 15-year-old, still having had less than six months of high school baseball training, pitch complete games continually? This was utterly murdering his career as a pitcher—Izumi Minoru admitted he couldn’t make such a choice;

Replacing Uchida Saint meant gambling—it would be relying on the hope that his lineup could continuously respond since Uchida Saint’s restraining power at this level of competition was considerably weaker.

Momentarily, even Izumi Minoru, who had overseen Waseda for nearly twenty years, found it difficult to make the decision.