Baseball: A Two-Way Player

The Shengong Stadium, packed with people, was now silent—if no one had mentioned it, no one would think that a baseball game was ongoing here.

In the center of the field, it was the bottom of the sixth inning, with Waseda Industries at bat.

The first five innings of the game were truly a showcase for the pitchers—neither Lin Guanglai nor Yoshinaga Kentarou allowed a single run and continually stifled several batters, making it difficult even to advance to second base.

However, at the start of this half-inning, the situation on the field changed dramatically:

Nihon University's attrition tactics against Lin Guanglai were effective, and balancing pitching and batting duties pushed Lin Guanglai's stamina to its limit sooner than usual.

Normally, Lin Guanglai's stamina would be sufficient to complete the whole game, with extreme fatigue showing around the seventh or eighth inning; today, however, he felt both physically and mentally exhausted before even finishing the sixth inning, which showed how formidable the opponent Nihon University was, and the intensity of the matchup.

Nihon University's players keenly sensed his decline in form—having faced Lin Guanglai on multiple occasions before, they knew this was their best chance to score; missing it might mean it would never come again.

Therefore, they unleashed a barrage in this half-inning against Lin Guanglai; and conveniently for Nihon University, the first three batters this inning were their batting lineup's centerpiece.

Sho Hango, the third batter, hit a single, and while Uesugi Yasuyuki was slightly slow in trying to tag out at second base, Nihon University sacrificed a fourth batter, Hirao Toshitaka, allowing Sho Hango to reach third base.

Next, despite Lin Guanglai's efforts to suppress the opponents, Takayama Shun, who only aimed to score rather than secure a hit, found it relatively easy to hit the ball high and far.

Sho Hango, who was already prepared at third base, quickly sprinted back to home plate as the ball landed in Kenshu Yasuda's glove in central field, touching home plate just before Uesugi Yasuyuki could execute the out.

Having finally broken the stalemate after much difficulty, Nihon University's players were naturally overjoyed; on the Waseda side, although losing one point was frustrating, it didn't significantly affect the players' spirits.

With the game entering the bottom of the sixth inning, both in Shengong Stadium and in front of TVs, Waseda supporters anticipated their team would swiftly respond with their own scores—in this inning, Waseda's batting lineup also rotated back to the third batter, implying they had no reason to do worse than Nihon University!

Now standing in the batter's box was the fourth batter, Lin Guanglai—before him, although the third batter, Kenshu Yasuda, hit a single, perhaps in his eagerness to kick-start the team, his overly aggressive leading got picked off by the pitching mound's Yoshinaga.

Standing in the batter's box, Lin Guanglai knew that whether as the fourth batter or as the team leader, it was his moment to step up and contribute to the team.

The stadium was silent—on Nihon University's side because they were not allowed to make noise during the opponent's at-bat; on Waseda's side, to avoid disturbing Lin Guanglai, they only played the strong bat's exclusive 'Lupin III' once, then stayed quiet.

Yoshinaga Kentarou on the mound wasn't in a hurry to pitch; his strategy against Lin Guanglai was simple: walks were acceptable, short hits were acceptable, but long hits—absolutely not!

The start of this at-bat went unexpectedly smoothly: Yoshinaga Kentarou threw two consecutive breaking balls, both of which Lin Guanglai held off, a 1-1 count that was entirely acceptable;

On the third pitch, Lin Guanglai swung and fouled the ball off, sending it flying into Shengong Stadium's stands on the first-base side, causing ripples among the crowd.

After three pitches, with a count of 1 ball and 2 strikes, the Nihon University pitcher-catcher duo had a significant advantage, which sparked some thoughts in Suzuki Takahiro, the catcher.

Deciphering the signals from his partner, Yoshinaga Kentarou frowned while shaking his head, indicating his disagreement: with a big advantage in the count, catcher Suzuki Takahiro wanted to strike out Lin Guanglai directly; but as a pitcher, Yoshinaga Kentarou knew his opponent's strength and wanted to prioritize stability.

Eventually, Suzuki Takahiro chose to respect the pitcher's judgment and followed Yoshinaga Kentarou's idea, opting for an inside breaking ball to bait.

The purpose of this pitch was mainly to set up the next one, using a bad pitch count to disrupt the batter's focus.

On the mound, Yoshinaga Kentarou lifted his front leg, exploded with power from his lower body, driving his body forward as his arm swung out, the small white ball shooting from his fingers like a projectile straight toward home plate.

Just as Suzuki Takahiro had set the glove, ready to catch the baseball, he noticed, startled, that Lin Guanglai, to his right, had started his swing.

"He's crazy, swinging at an inside breaking ball like that?" — This was Suzuki Takahiro's instinctive first reaction.

However, upon seeing Lin Guanglai's batting motion, Suzuki Takahiro was immediately filled with a sense of foreboding:

Inside the batter's box, Lin Guanglai's entire body had twisted like a noodle man as he accurately connected with the lower middle part of the ball with the bat, producing a thundering sound.

"Boom—!!!"

In the ears of the Waseda team and their supporters, who had been suppressed for most of the game, the sound was heavenly; for Nihon University's players, the sound was like a funeral knell, pounding on their hearts, "dong dong dong."

"The ball is heading towards right field, it's flying high and far, let's see how it goes—!!!"

The commentators on the commentary box watched intently as the screen displayed the scene—the white ball spinning rapidly in the summer blue sky, under the gaze of thousands of eyes below.

The baseball flew higher and farther, leaving all the chasing Nihon University players behind, leaving them only with a sense of powerless melancholy.

"It's gone—!!!"

"A timely solo home run that's beyond timely!!!"

"Indeed, you can always count on Lin Guanglai—if you ask me why, this is why!!!"

Simultaneously with the commentators' emotional shouts was the rekindled Shengong Stadium—on the third-base side stands, Waseda supporters came to life again, responding with even more enthusiastic cheers to Lin Guanglai, waving to them from the field.

The TV broadcasting camera replayed the at-bat earlier, and upon seeing Lin Guanglai's swing action, even the seasoned commentator of Takayama couldn't help but exclaim:

"You can't say Yoshinaga's pitch was bad, in fact, I dare say few batters would choose to swing at such a bad pitch—this can only be attributed to Lin Guanglai, who blasted even this bad pitch over the fence, truly a generational talent!"

Standing in the center of the field, Yoshinaga Kentarou knew that the cheers were not for him; he stood there expressionless, neither happy nor sad, revealing no inner thoughts.

"The match isn't over yet!" he muttered to himself.