Baseball: A Two-Way Player

Saturday, July 30, 2011.

There are 7 days left until the opening of the 93rd National High School Baseball Championship Tournament.

Tokyo, Meiji Jingu Stadium.

"Good morning, high school baseball fans!"

"Welcome to the 93rd National High School Baseball Championship West Tokyo Conference, the final match!"

"It's that most exciting time of the year again, after over half a month of fierce competition, the strongest two teams in the entire West Tokyo region have made it here— they will fight for the one and only ticket to Koshien in this match."

In the commentary booth, the two commentators responsible for this match are introducing the two competing sides.

"On the third base side, Nihon University Third, the attacking team — They dominated Nihon University Tsurugaoka 9:3 in the semifinals, clinching the Nihon University derby while also avenging their previous defeat."

"On the first base side, Waseda Real, the defending team — They also achieved a resounding victory in the semifinals, with an 11:5 score demonstrating their strength."

"Nihon University Third is the 2010 Shengong Tournament champion, while Waseda Industries is the champion of this year's Senbatsu High School Baseball Tournament — you could say these two teams have been the strongest in all of Japan over the past year; their showdown also represents the highest level of Japanese high school baseball today."

"The focus of this match naturally is on the starting pitchers of the two teams — Nihon University Third's Yoshinaga Kentarou, after a period of rest in the spring, entered the summer breaking away from spring's slump with impressive performances, having pitched complete games four times in the first 6 matches, conceding only 3 runs. Meanwhile, Waseda's Lin Guanglai player, although absent from the match against Showa due to illness, has yet to concede a single run in the remaining games of this tournament so far, leading in strikeouts as well, living up to his reputation as a generational player."

"I believe for both teams, their goals should be the same — whichever team wins, representing West Tokyo in heading to Koshien and conquering the nation is their sole objective this summer!"

At 10 a.m. sharp, the alarm sounded at Shengong Stadium, the defending Waseda players took their positions and Lin Guanglai completed his pre-game warm-up tosses.

The main umpire pointed to the pitcher's mound with his right hand and shouted:

"Play Ball!!!"

Unlike the spring matchup, Nihon University Third's coach Ogura Quanyou made adjustments to the batting order:

The familiar three-pillar hitters of Nihon University Third were moved from the top of the order to the core positions of three, four, and five, while left-handed batters Hiroki Shimizu and Kaneko Rei were promoted to the first and second spots.

Clearly, the subtle change in batting order is one of the tricks Nihon University Third prepared specifically to deal with Lin Guanglai: after completing this lineup adjustment, among the starters for Nihon University Third, four of the first five batters are left-handed, holding an inherent advantage against right-handed pitcher Lin Guanglai.

As for this opponent, Lin Guanglai was quite familiar, so after the match was announced to start, he did not engage in much probing and instead immediately faced off directly with the batters from Nihon University Third.

The first and second pitches targeted Hiroki Shimizu's inside corner, enforcing a strategy to firmly suppress the batter's inside corner, leading Shimizu not to swing at all; then came a precise high-breaking ball, matching perfectly with the edge of the strike zone, earning a swinging strikeout.

Second batter Kaneko Reiya also did not pose much threat to Lin Guanglai, despite making contact, he couldn't get a solid hit, resulting in a weak grounder intercepted by Matsunaga Kenta at the shortstop position, who then threw to first base for the out.

Having dealt with the first two batters, Lin Guanglai would now confront Nihon University Third's three-pillar hitters.

Outside the third base player's area, just returning from the field, Kaneko Rei was sharing insights with third batter Sho Hango about his just-completed at-bat:

"Sho, Kentarou's analysis was indeed spot-on, the pitch path was exactly as I predicted— but you need to be careful, Lin Guanglai's pitching authority is quite strong, when hitting, make sure to hit accurately and steadily, or else it can easily end up like my previous hit."

Receiving his teammate's reminder, Sho Hango nodded and left the on-deck circle, making his way to the batter's box.

After a series of exchanges between the pitcher and the batter, the game situation came to 1 ball, 2 strikes, with the advantage in favor of the pitcher.

Sho Hango stood in the batter's box, recalling the statistical brief Yoshinaga Kentarou specially presented at the team meeting before the match:

During spring recuperation, Yoshinaga Kentarou watched a large amount of Waseda's match videos, specifically studying Lin Guanglai's pitching and pitch array habits under various situations, formulating targeted plans — the performance in the first two at-bats by Lin Guanglai also verified the contents of the data, only the Nihon University Third players had not fully capitalized on the opportunities.

The data indicated that when bases are empty and the count reaches 2 strikes, Lin Guanglai's favorite pitch is a slider or curveball aiming towards the corners of the strike zone, thereby achieving a strike-out while also inducing the batter to swing.

On the pitcher's mound, Lin Guanglai moved, his arm swung forward with his body leaning forward, and the baseball was thrown during this action.

Indeed, the ball moved towards the outer low corner of the strike zone for Sho Hango, the batter, Sho Hango, being exceptionally capable, having understood the pitch trajectory, naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity.