CHAPTER 73: CHAPTER 73: ON THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF

"Guanglai, get ready to go on the field." Izumi Minoru called out to Lin Guanglai, who was sitting there, asking him to warm up again.

The score on the field had now reached 2:5, with Kantou Number One still leading by three runs.

After Suzuki Kensuke left the game due to injury, Izumi Minoru pondered and chose to replace him with the second-year Uchida Saint—there was no other reason, this stubborn old man wanted to gamble once more for the team’s upcoming schedule:

Before the match against Kantou Number One began, Takayama had already completed the draw for the next round: if Waseda Jitsugyo could pass successfully today, their opponent tomorrow would be the Chiba Representative, Narita High School.

It is foreseeable that against Narita, which is built around the ace pitcher Nakagawa Ryosuke, Waseda Jitsugyo would also need a strong pitcher to respond.

For this reason, Izumi Minoru’s supervision decided to let Uchida Saint go on the field—as long as the difference in score was not expanded to a point where it was completely impossible to turn around, eating more innings would be beneficial.

The match had already finished five innings, and overall, Uchida Saint’s task was completed quite well:

Coming off the bench, pitching full two innings, facing nine batters, achieving two strikeouts, and conceding two runs—for a relay pitcher, these statistics were still within an acceptable range.

With four innings left until the end of the match, Izumi Minoru knows that next—the moment to decide the victory of the match—has arrived!

Sitting beside Lin Guanglai on the substitute bench was Suzuki Kensuke, who had already dealt with his injury—his right wrist was wrapped in layers of white bandages, and he still held an ice pack with his other hand for icing; if not for insisting on staying to finish the match with his teammates, he should be heading to the hospital for a comprehensive examination.

Watching the junior standing up from the bench and preparing to warm up, Suzuki Kensuke told him, "Guanglai, when you go up there, just throw as you should, don’t be nervous—if your mind goes blank, just look at Ryouta’s signals."

As a pitcher himself, Suzuki Kensuke certainly understood the pressure Lin Guanglai faced when going onto the field at this moment, so he tried to ease the junior’s pressure in his own way.

Turning his head to look at Suzuki Kensuke, and the layers of bandages wrapped around his arm, Lin Guanglai smiled:

"Don’t worry, Senior Suzuki—your summer, our summer, definitely won’t end today!"

In the first half of the sixth inning, despite scoring two hits, Waseda Jitsugyo couldn’t narrow the score advantage, with the gap still being three runs.

In the second half of the sixth inning, under the gaze of the entire audience, Lin Guanglai once again stepped onto the pitcher’s mound, ready to start pitching.

This time coming off the bench was obviously different from the previous times: in the previous relay outings, Lin Guanglai either came on to eat some innings after the game was set or served as a closer when the team was leading—this was the first time he was pitching when the score was behind.

If it were someone else, they might have started trembling already, but Lin Guanglai didn’t; instead, he felt very relaxed at this moment: it was precisely because the supervisor and teammates deeply trusted him that they entrusted him with such an important task at this time.

So with this mindset, Lin Guanglai slowly lifted his front foot and threw the first pitch of the second half of the sixth inning.

"Clang!"

Koyama Akira, the seventh batter for Kantou Number One, was lured by the two-seam fastball, though he hit the baseball after swinging the bat, the ball weakly rolled on the ground toward the gap between first and second base.

Standing at the second base defense position, Fukasawa Kouta rushed all the way toward the direction of the incoming ball, sending his gloved left hand forward, close to the ground—for a player of his level, this simple routine play had been practiced thousands of times: after catching the ball, a light throw towards first base would naturally lead to the opponent batter being out.

"Second baseman missed!!" Takumi Tanchisha, in the commentary booth, was the first to notice the anomaly on the field, instantly shouting loudly.

When the familiar feeling didn’t come from within the glove, Fukasawa Kouta knew something was wrong—he quickly looked back to find the position of the baseball.

Fortunately, Onoda Shunsuke in right field was very focused and immediately took position behind his second baseman after he went forward to catch the ball;

After catching the baseball that spilled into the outfield, Onoda directly threw it toward third base—to prevent Koyama Akira from attempting to advance further after taking advantage of Fukasawa Kouta’s error, who had already safely reached second base.

The ball returned once again to Lin Guanglai’s hand, and he felt a bit helpless—if someone had been most affected by this error, it was undoubtedly himself as the pitcher: because the error directly gave the opponent a double, which compounded the unfavorable situation Waseda Jitsugyo was already in;

But the situation had already happened, and complaining wouldn’t mean anything—after receiving an apology from Fukasawa Kouta, Lin Guanglai nodded and prepared to focus on dealing with the next batter.

For Kantou Number One, getting on second base due to the opponent’s error gave them plenty of leeway: immediately after Koyama Akira, the eighth batter, Saito Toyohiko stepped up and assumed the bunt stance, clearly intending to sacrifice himself to help his teammate advance.

In this situation, although Lin Guanglai tried to prevent the opponent from bunting by raising or lowering the position where the baseball entered the strike zone, the second base runner occasionally leaving the base and the limitation of balls and strikes made his control fluctuate.

"Clang~"

Saito Toyohiko bunted the baseball into the dirt in front of the home plate, threw away the bat, and charged toward first base; at the same time, Koyama Akira, who was ready, also started toward the third base bag.

Because the team was always prepared against the opponent’s bunting strategy, the moment the baseball was bunted out, Tsuchiya Ryota quickly took off his catcher’s mask, rushed forward to pick up the baseball on the ground with his right hand, and without adjusting, made a step forward, flinging his body and the baseball toward first base.

"Pop."

Sugai Natsuki at first base didn’t make a mistake, stably catching the ball into his glove, successfully getting Saito Toyohiko out; but at the same time, Koyama Akira safely reached the third base bag.

The hot weather, tense situation, and trailing score—all these factors mixed together made the usually calm Lin Guanglai a bit heated—

Facing a situation with a runner on third base and one out, the pitch he threw was exactly what Kantou Number Nine batter’s sacrifice fly was aiming for, hitting it hard and flying through the infield to right field.

Even though Onoda Shunsuke successfully caught the batter out, the distance was enough for Koyama Akira on third base to run back home and score.

Even after this run, Lin Guanglai responded immediately with a strikeout using three pitches, but the damage was done, the score was expanded to four runs in the second half of the sixth inning, and the hope of Waseda Jitsugyo winning seemed diminishing.

As Tanaka Shuji said in the commentary booth:

"With the end of the second half of the sixth inning, the West Tokyo representative is already on the edge of the cliff."

"The time left for them is running out."