"Tsk tsk, truly a genius of our generation, Lin Guanglai is indeed incredible."

"That's right, our Osaka Tsubaki is considered one of the top teams in the Kansai Region, yet after 6 innings, we've been completely shut out— and just look at him, he seems so at ease, as if he's not tired at all."

"Indeed, our players' potential is quite high, but in terms of quality, we're still lacking a bit— it seems this year is not the time yet. Let's see what happens next year when Jintaro and the others are third-year students..."

The Osaka Tsubaki High School dugout is very close to the field boundaries, separated only by a wall — because of this, Mori Yuuya, sitting idly in the corner of the bench, can clearly hear the discussions of the spectators behind him.

Looking towards the scoreboard on the sidelines, the game had already gone through five innings, and neither Osaka Tsubaki nor Waseda Industries had been able to break through the opponent's pitcher and defensive players. The score remained 0:0.

Lin Guanglai's pitching was in excellent form today, allowing only 3 hits and striking out 7 in the five innings—considering that his average speed was only around 140 km/h today, with a lot of new pitch types used in the mix, Mori Yuuya suspected that Lin was completely using their Osaka Tsubaki team as practice.

In the bullpen on the other side of the field, Waseda's backup pitcher had already started warming up, as Lin Guanglai was expected to be substituted after pitching the sixth inning.

After all, this game against Osaka Tsubaki was merely a friendly exhibition match, and since the goal had been achieved, it was better to substitute Lin Guanglai to an outfield position early.

All these precautions were taken to ensure no player, especially Lin, would get injured from overexertion before the Summer甲 qualifying games began— one can never be too careful during these critical preparatory stages.

"If I were up to bat, we would definitely be in the lead now!" propping his chin on his hand, Mori Yuuya started losing focus as his attention wandered off.

"Mori. Mori? Mori!"

A loud noise shattered Mori Yuuya's peaceful train of thought; he looked up to find his coach standing right in front of him, giving him a stern look.

Realizing he got caught daydreaming by the coach, Mori Yuuya felt unlucky; however, no matter how disgruntled he was inside, outwardly he could only lower his head and apologize to Nishikawa Koji.

Back in middle school, Mori Yuuya had been a rebellious delinquent, and his personality hadn't changed much since joining the Osaka Tsubaki Baseball Club. He didn't show the same level of respect as his peers towards the 'senpai' members, and disliked the constant formalities —but that didn't mean he disrespected Nishikawa Koji standing in front of him.

He deeply respected Nishikawa Koji, who had faced opposition to bring this delinquent to the prestigious Osaka Tsubaki, and who guided him like a nurturing father in everyday life.

"Coach, I'm really sorry, I..."

He had just started to apologize when Nishikawa Koji interrupted him with a slightly impatient expression on his fleshy face, saying:

"Enough, Mori— get your body warmed up quickly and be ready to substitute Kawabata and bat in the next inning when the game resumes."

After saying this, Nishikawa Koji glanced meaningfully at the slightly dazed Mori Yuuya and added:

"Don't disappoint me."

As the head coach, Nishikawa Koji was aware of the minor incident before the game— his unusual first-year catcher's provocations towards the opponents were certainly not commendable, but reprimanding him would have to wait until after the game.

The game was still underway, and Lin Guanglai was surprisingly in top form today, as the entire Osaka Tsubaki lineup had failed to make any impact against him.

Seeing that Waseda's Izumi Minoru was about to sub him out, Nishikawa Koji was not content to end the game in a 0:0 draw— even one successful breach against Lin Guanglai's defense could greatly boost the confidence of Osaka Tsubaki players, helping them perform better in the upcoming summer tournament.

It was at this moment that Nishikawa Koji thought of Mori Yuuya on the bench— since recruiting him to Osaka Tsubaki, Nishikawa Koji had valued Mori Yuuya's exceptional hitting talents above all.

Since Furuta Atsuya revolutionized Japanese baseball in the 1990s with his incredible batting average and power, challenging the orthodox belief that "a catcher only needs to focus on defense," various Nihon Professional Baseball teams have increased their emphasis on a catcher's batting capabilities.

During this period, all-around catchers like Shiroyama Kenshi, Tani Fumio, Risaki Tomoya, and Abe Shinjiro began to emerge more frequently—this trend gradually influenced high school baseball, too.

Traditionally, the pitcher-catcher duo forms the core of a team's defenses. Rather than the often fruitless physical and mental effort put into hitting, focusing on defensive skills was deemed more appropriate. Generally in the batting order, catchers and pitchers found themselves as the 8th or 9th batters, commonly referred to as "giveaway bats," often lightly swinging just for show.

Yet Mori Yuuya was different.

Nishikawa Koji had joined Osaka Tsubaki in 1993, and became the head coach in 1998— throughout his coaching career, Mori Yuuya's hitting prowess was unmatched, even exceeding Asamura Eitou, who led Osaka Tsubaki to a Summer甲 victory in 2008.

From observing today's matches, it's clear Waseda Real did quite a bit of homework, as many of Lin Guanglai's pitching strategies focused specifically on the individual traits of various Osaka Tsubaki hitters.

Given this, playing Mori Yuuya, whose high school batting record was still a blank slate, might just introduce a fresh juncture to this slightly stifled pitching duel.

While Nishikawa Koji was pondering this, outside the Osaka Tsubaki player area, Mori Yuuya was already vigorously warming up. Meanwhile, his intense gaze remained fixed on Lin Guanglai, fiery enough to devour him whole.

Feeling the energy coursing through his warmed-up body, Mori Yuuya slightly broke his gaze from Lin Guanglai, setting his sights on the scoreboard beside the field. The bottom of Waseda's offense just concluded, and despite Fujinami Jintaro's control issues, he managed to keep the score tied at 0:0 through some ups and downs.

"This score won't last much longer," Mori Yuuya thought to himself.

He was exceedingly confident in his abilities.

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