Chapter 191: Chapter 75: Two Outs to Go
Top of the ninth inning, the offense for Tokai University Sagami High School begins with their ninth batter, today’s starting pitcher, Nagata Ryudou.
As the team’s ace pitcher, Nagata Ryudou is compelled to take on the responsibility of opening up the game for his team in this crucial top of the ninth inning—a significant challenge for him.
After all, as a pitcher, especially considering that he is the successor to the exceptionally talented Ichiyotai Shintaro, even just improving his pitching skills in regular training takes a lot of effort from Nagata Ryudou, so how could he have any energy left to refine his batting technique?
But with the game at this point, Nagata Ryudou knows there is no retreat—if they cannot erase the four-run gap in the top of the ninth, the game will end directly; in this situation, every out is extremely precious for Tokai University Sagami High School.
Compared to the heavy atmosphere at Tokai University Sagami High School, Waseda Jitsugyo’s mindset is much more relaxed:
Firstly, the four-run lead in the ninth inning is almost a score gap that can secure victory—especially considering their pitcher is Lin Guanglai, the probability of Tokai University Sagami bringing four batters back to home plate is nearly zero;
Secondly, even if we take a step back, and Lin Guanglai suddenly completely loses his pitching feel, directly allowing the opponents to score four or more runs, Waseda Jitsugyo still has another half inning to play—the advantage of defending first and attacking later is fully evident at this moment.
It can be said that the pressure is all on the players of Tokai University Sagami High School right now; as for Waseda Jitsugyo, they just need to do what they have been doing for the past eight innings, and steadily secure the victory medal.
Before the top of the ninth inning began, Lin Guanglai was seriously doing his pre-game preparations—as the mainstay of the team and the pitcher responsible for directly affecting the outcome, he bears everyone’s expectations.
Before going on the field, Lin Guanglai gathered his teammates around him, and after calling out everyone’s name one by one according to their defensive positions, he took a deep breath and said earnestly:
"Alright, everyone, let’s go!!!"
Slowly walking up to the pitcher’s mound, Lin Guanglai continuously scraped the ground with his cleats, his expression calm, obviously carefully contemplating his pitching strategy.
Thanks to the reasonable distribution of pitches in this game, after eight innings, Lin Guanglai’s total pitch count just exceeded 100; after the test of physical limits, he could still deliver relatively high-quality pitches in the top of the ninth inning.
The broadcast at Koshien Stadium resounded again, and amidst the enthusiastic support from the Tokai University Sagami supporters above the third base line, Nagata Ryudou, equipped with his batting gear, walked into the batter’s box with a bat in hand.
Being a left-handed pitcher, Nagata Ryudou is naturally also a left-handed batter, so he stepped into the right side batter’s box of home plate.
"Play Ball!"
For the first pitch, Lin Guanglai chose a low outside fastball, intending to snatch a strike count from the start—he even slightly reduced the speed of the ball to ensure more precise control, making it harder for the batter to act.
"Pop."
"Strike."
The baseball nearly grazed the bottom right corner of the strike zone for Nagata Ryudou, a tricky position that left the already-mediocre hitting Nagata Ryudou feeling helpless, and after a brief consideration, he chose to let the ball pass by, watching the baseball enter the zone.
After successfully securing a strike count, Lin Guanglai immediately shifted his strategy, starting to slowly entangle Nagata Ryudou.
Again, at this moment, all the pressure is on the batters of Tokai University Sagami High School; what Lin Guanglai needs to do is to exploit their mentality of desperately trying to level the score and further limit their approach and angles.
For the second pitch, he delivered a highly tempting high inside fastball; for the third pitch, it was a low inside slider.
One of these two pitches was let go by Nagata Ryudou and landed outside the strike zone; the other successfully tricked him into swinging—the two confrontations ended in a tie, with the result of 1 strike and 1 ball seemingly acceptable to both sides.
It was at this moment that the advantage of the earliest strike count came to light.
In the player area on the third base side for Tokai University Sagami High School, all of their players had already risen from their seats, shouting various slogans:
Among them, there were calls for Nagata Ryudou to be cautious in choosing pitches, striving for a walk; others urged him to swing with all his might and hit the ball out—facing the impending defeat, these players of Tokai University Sagami were overwhelmingly driven by emotion, finding it difficult to maintain on-field composure and reasoning.
This collective frenzy naturally had some impact on Nagata Ryudou in the batter’s box: from the close-up shots of the broadcast, it was clear to see that even under his heavy helmet, sweat was visibly dripping from Nagata Ryudou’s head.
At this moment, he is arguably the person under the greatest pressure in the entire game.
Seeing the other party’s stiff appearance, Lin Guanglai decided not to continue the entanglement—after signaling with Uesugi Yasuyuki, Lin Guanglai indicated that he wanted a decisive outcome this round!
Low inside, slider!
The baseball shot out from Lin Guanglai’s hand, aimed directly for the strike zone—for the already impaired judgment of Nagata Ryudou, his body controlled his brain and swung the bat toward the incoming ball.
However, just as the baseball was about to be smashed by the bat, under the influence of Magnetic Force, the ball veered towards the lower left corner of the strike zone before reaching home plate—between these back-and-forth transitions, the bat and the baseball brushed past each other just like two strangers meeting briefly in a crowded place.
The wildly swinging bat continued to move forward, producing a whooshing sound along its path; but in the batter’s box, Nagata Ryudou’s heart kept sinking, because he knew what would happen next following his missed swing.
As the bat drew a hook-like trajectory in the air and returned to Nagata Ryudou’s back, he closed his eyes in the batter’s box.
At the same time, the decisive voice of the home plate umpire resounded:
"Strike! Batter out!"
With the umpire’s ruling, Koshien Stadium was instantly split in two:
On the left side, the Tokai University Sagami supporters were filled with regret, each person’s face overtaken by pained expressions—at a time like this, every out means they are one step further from securing the championship flag of Koshien.
Meanwhile, on the right side, the Alps Stand was turning into a sea of joy: Waseda Jitsugyo’s supporters erupted in applause, wholeheartedly cheering for their team—each of their faces blossoming with smiles, some even catching a whiff of victory’s champagne aroma.
In the center of the field, upon witnessing Nagata Ryudou’s strikeout, the Waseda Jitsugyo fielders couldn’t hide their excitement; Lin Guanglai clenched his right fist and let out a triumphant shout.
Afterwards, waiting for his emotions to gradually settle, Lin Guanglai turned around and raised two fingers towards his teammates.
"Two more outs!"