At the end of the first inning, with a powerful burst from the top of the lineup, the championship favorite Waseda Industries led the dark horse Sakushin Gakuin 4:0.

Such a score, in the opinion of many, was still considered a relatively reasonable outcome.

In the following second inning, neither side had any break, and the total score remained unchanged at 4:0.

The offense of Sakushin Gakuin was completely suppressed by Lin Guanglai alone, failing to get on base for two consecutive innings, and once again bitterly swallowing the fruit of three up and three down;

On Waseda's side, although the offensive lineup was in better form, the termination ability of the latter part of the lineup in key moments was indeed somewhat deficient. Even though they continuously moved into the scoring circle with hit-and-run tactics, they were still defended by the opponent and couldn't complete the task of scoring.

In the top of the third inning, adjusting back from the initial fluctuations, two batters from Sakushin Gakuin, who gradually got into the game state, hit consecutive hits, causing a moment of panic in Waseda's entire defense.

On the pitcher's mound, Lin Guanglai slightly opened his arms, lowered his hands, signaling his teammates to calm down — his confident, poised manner seemed to be telling everyone around:

"Don't worry! I'm here!"

Even in the face of a crisis situation with no outs and runners on first and third bases, Lin Guanglai's face showed no trace of panic;

As the defensive core of the team, he first used powerful pitching to suppress the opponent's idea to bunt for a score, successfully striking out a valuable strikeout;

Then, Lin Guanglai began to adjust the entire team's defensive positions in order to minimize the possibility of loss scoring.

Lin Guanglai had his own thoughts about this game:

Starting from the end of this trial match, as more teams get eliminated, the later schedule will become more compact — for Waseda aiming for victory, it means they are likely to battle for three days in a row.

Such high-intensity games are a huge drain on pitchers, even Lin Guanglai cannot guarantee that he can maintain his dominance when playing continuously.

At such times, as the team's ace, one should rest as much as possible whenever feasible.

Today's match, with the opponent being generally ordinary and their own team having gained a relatively favorable lead in the opening phase — Lin Guanglai's thought was to use a strong offensive wave to hit the opponent so hard that they couldn't recover, ending the suspense of this match early.

"Swing and miss on the strikeout!!!" The commentator's enthusiastic voice blasted out from the television — just now, Lin Guanglai struck out another batter from Sakushin Gakuin, bringing the situation to two outs, with runners on first and third bases.

When the ground ball hit by Banazaki Naoto was smoothly caught by Chongxin Shen Zhong and firmly relayed to Hagiyama Mitsuo, the first baseman's glove, Waseda naturally secured their needed third out, ending this half-inning without a score.

Though the process was arduous, at least the final outcome of this half-inning was defensive, allowing Lin Guanglai a bit of relaxation.

Despite appearing composed on the broadcast, as if it cost him no effort;

In reality, sweat had already soaked through his undershirt, staining the outer jersey and his number patch with some sweat marks.

This was a phenomenon created by the hot weather and the pressure of the game.

Returning to the player area, he took cold water from a teammate, gulping a few random mouthfuls to make his body feel a bit refreshing. He then geared up with his batting protection, headed outside to the waiting area, and started warming up swings, as he was the lead batter meant to break open the game for the team.

Regarding Sakushin Gakuin as an opponent, Lin Guanglai had been studying them these past few days:

Based on the content presented in the two Koshien matches, the baseball team of this prestigious school was definitely not the "big gift package" or the object to be slaughtered that some media perceived;

Contrarily, in Lin Guanglai's view, Sakushin Gakuin was absolutely a team capable of entering the top four, even capturing the ultimate victory — the only thing they lacked was some push of confidence.

Although this perspective may seem cruel to the players of Sakushin Gakuin, as their third-round opponent is Lin Guanglai himself and his Waseda Industries, Lin Guanglai feels obligated as an opponent, as the team's ace pitcher and the fourth batter, to cut off their wings before they can truly soar — only then can the dreams of his teammates and himself continue.

Stepping forward, Lin Guanglai entered the batting zone, raising his bat high and setting his eyes firmly on Ohtani Shuhiro on the pitcher's mound.

The goal for this at-bat was a home run, for what could more severely impact the opponent's confidence than a home run?

Today there was a significant wind at the Koshien Stadium, and the direction was against, blowing towards home plate from the outfield — this meant that hitting a home run was much harder than usual.

In the Alps Stand, when the tall and erect figure stepped into the batting zone, the supporters of Sakushin Gakuin felt a pang in their hearts, with the encounter from Teikyo Junior & Senior High School's first round still fresh in their minds. They truly feared suffering another major loss from Lin Guanglai.

Ohtani Shuhiro inhaled deeply, then threw the ball out.

First pitch, inside fastball, slightly inside, ball.

Second pitch, outside slider, low, ball.

Third pitch, inside fastball, slightly inside, ball.

In the stands, the murmuring sounds surfaced again, as the consecutive three balls clearly led the spectators to believe that Ohtani Shuhiro was inclined to give a base-on-balls — a tactic not lightly taken in the Koshien tradition of direct confrontation.

On the pitcher's mound, Ohtani Shuhiro naturally heard the rising sounds around him, and his face turned somewhat grim:

Honestly, he never intended to intentionally walk Lin Guanglai, none of these three pitches were wild tosses; as a pitcher, the pressure from facing Lin Guanglai on the mound was immense, particularly when trailing by four runs.

Bound by various pressures, the fourth pitch thrown by Ohtani Shuhiro turned out to be unimaginably sweet, even more so than the balls fed during normal practice — as a hitter adept at seizing opportunities, Lin Guanglai surely wouldn't miss this chance, swung his big bat, and struck the inside low fastball.

"Clang—!!!"

The baseball collided fiercely with the bat, producing a crisp sound followed by cheers resonating throughout the venue.

Amid the fervent cheers and concentrated gaze of tens of thousands, the baseball flew into the wind, landing outside the field just before the outfielder of Sakushin Gakuin could sense it.

Surrounded by cheering crowds, the young man raised his arms high, his smile unfurling blithely at the center of Koshien Stadium.

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