Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama High School.

Yanagida Yuuya now has no desire to speak; he just feels utterly exhausted—after playing all night last night and being forcibly awakened early the next morning, who could be happy?

"Yanagida, why are you looking so listless?—With you like this, how can I be at ease handing over the team to you!"

Looking at Kondo Kensuke standing right in front of him, Yanagida Yuuya couldn't help but sigh: Clearly, everyone played together last night, so how does this guy always maintain such an energetic appearance?

"Hurry up, Yanagida—the game should have already started by now. If you keep dragging your feet, the first inning will almost be over!"

Facing the urging from his senior, Yanagida Yuuya replied weakly, "Yes—senpai."

Yanagida Yuuya obviously knew why Kondo senpai was so excited today—because today there was a match between Waseda Jitsugyo and Chiben Gakuen, and they were on their way to the club room to watch the game.

His ankle still throbbed with some pain; after being hit hard by a rolling ball in that area, the doctor said he needed to rest for a long time.

Honestly, Yanagida Yuuya wasn't very interested in the outcome of this game:

If it had been right after they'd lost the game a few days ago, when he couldn't accept the result, maybe then he'd have looked forward to seeing Chiben Gakuen's loss; but now, the Yokohama players had pretty much moved on from the pain of defeat, making the outcome of this match less significant.

Though his relationship with Lin Guanglai was quite good, Yanagida Yuuya felt that there was no point in watching a match with no suspense and nothing to do with his own school.

Yanagida Yuuya chose to humor his senior mostly because Kondo Kensuke had always been so good to him: constantly looking out for him in both practice and daily life, and after the loss at Koshien, while other teammates who lived closer to home chose to return, Kondo Kensuke, aware of his family situation, had given up his chance to go back home, choosing instead to stay with him—a gesture especially precious in the high school baseball world where family gatherings are rare throughout the year.

Arriving at the club room, Kondo Kensuke eagerly turned on the television, and as soon as the screen lit up, both Kondo Kensuke and Yanagida Yuuya saw Lin Guanglai's hit, which earned one run, giving Waseda Jitsugyo a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the inning.

Seeing this, Kondo Kensuke seemed as if he had scored himself, raising his arms in excitement, jumping and cheering:

"Well done, Guanglai—I knew I wasn't wrong about you!!!"

"Keep playing like this, and use continuous offense to secure the victory!!!"

Just as Kondo Kensuke was finishing this sentence and hoping to see a resounding victory, the situation on the field suddenly changed.

After allowing 1 run in the bottom half of the first inning, Chiben Gakuen didn't panic and responded composedly, quickly retiring batters and preventing further scoring;

In the top half of the second inning, Chiben Gakuen quickly launched their counterattack: Batters Ono Yama Atsushi and Yokohama Naoki in the fifth and sixth spots hit consecutive hits—With zero outs and runners on first and second, Chiben Gakuen's players quickly equalized the score using small-ball tactics: A ground ball to second and a sacrifice fly to central field successfully brought teammates home.

After this half-inning, the score returned to an equal standing at 1-1, and it remained unchanged for several innings thereafter.

In the bottom half of the second inning, discarding an initial walk to Ono Yohei due to unstable control, subsequent Waseda Jitsugyo batters went down three up, three down—two weak grounders and a strikeout, cumulatively using fewer than ten pitches.

It was uncertain whether Waseda Jitsugyo's batters were having an off day or if Chiben Gakuen's targeted defense was too effective—in any case, the match, which was expected to have a clear disparity in strength, fell into a prolonged stalemate.

In the top half of the third inning, two Chiben Gakuen batters got on base, but the next three batters flew out consecutively, immobilized on the bases, leaving two stranded before the side was retired.

In the bottom half of the third inning, Waseda Jitsugyo responded: with one out, Lin Guanglai hit a double in his second appearance of the game, then advanced to third base under teammate support—with two outs, the line drive hit by Yagaki Kentaro was beautifully caught by Chiben Gakuen's ace, Sumiya Torai, just a few centimeters short of a hit.

Then came the fourth, fifth, and even sixth innings—as the game reached two-thirds of its duration, heading towards the final stages, the score on the field remained at the 1-1 mark from the top of the second inning.

Seeing time slipping away to change the score, Waseda Jitsugyo's players inevitably fell into anxious emotions within their dugout—endless offense without scoring yields punishment, a lesson reinforced in numerous past games; yet, the more desperate they were to break the deadlock, the easier it became for the opponent to seize mistakes during the offense—it seemed like a paradox now.

On the other side, Chiben Gakuen's morale was steadily rising along with the game: Knowing that Waseda Jitsugyo had sent in a second-string pitcher riled up Chiben Gakuen's players, who were eager to pay back with a blow; now, this score inspired confidence in the entire team, made them believe they could eliminate the Senbatsu champions and end their reigning dreams.

Outside of Chiben Gakuen's dugout, the team director Inamoto Yasukatsu and coach Kosaka Shosang exchanged smiles: They were even somewhat thankful for Waseda for choosing a second-string pitcher—otherwise, their own players might have naturally assumed losing was an expectation, and the match wouldn't have played out this way.

On the Alps Stand for Waseda Industries, despite continuous cheering, supporters' spirits were inevitably waning as time passed;

In front of the television, Kondo Kensuke crossed his arms seriously, his demeanor no longer relaxed as at the game's start—even Yanagida Yuuya, beside him, had his eyes wide open, watching attentively to see how the game would proceed.

The Senbatsu champions were already in trouble; Koshien needed a hero.

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