The top of the fourth inning is finally over, and for the players of Narashino, the result is absolutely the one they least wanted to see.

On the scoreboard above the outfield, behind the big words "Waseda Real," at the position for the top of the fourth inning, a large "3" is lit up.

After three sluggish innings, Waseda Jitsugyo's strategy paid off big this round, first unexpectedly scoring 2 points with a squeeze play and double steal tactic; then steadily advancing with sacrifice hits, sending Hagiyama Mitsuo back home from second base.

The 3:0 score is enough for them to relax a bit and face the upcoming games with a relatively calm attitude;

Now, the ball is in the Narashino players' court—if they can't respond quickly with equally vigorous attacks, the longer the game is dragged on, the more disadvantageous it will be for them.

However, when Narashino's players truly engaged in the offense, they were stunned to find that their batting lineup was like the Titanic sailing on the ocean, crashing into a giant iceberg on its way to its destination.

Lin Guanglai, Lin Guanglai again!

Though Narashino's players could, by deliberately conceding four balls, keep him from contributing in the offensive round, even directly disrupting his batting rhythm; yet when this person returned to the pitcher's mound, the extreme pressure was undiminished—only the way of bearing the pressure shifted from being shared among nine starting players on the field to one by one.

The bottom of the fourth inning, Narashino's batting lineup rotated back to Miyata Kazuya in the leadoff position, and as the lead batter, his pressure was immense: if the early batters couldn't seize the opportunity to break through, the pressure on the teammates at the back would increase exponentially—as the team leader, Miyata Kazuya knew he must bear the responsibility on his shoulders.

On the pitcher's mound, Lin Guanglai raised his front foot high, then quickly pressed his body forward, swinging his arm, simultaneously releasing the baseball from his right hand.

This pitch was straight and fast, a typical and impossibly typical fastball down the middle, without any curves—the signal was clear, Lin Guanglai was inviting the batter for a direct confrontation.

Miyata Kazuya, as the leadoff batter, surely couldn't miss this straight pitch down the middle, his eyes fixed on the incoming ball, his bat swung tightly to his body.

"Whoosh—"

The bat in Miyata Kazuya's hand carved a beautiful trajectory in the air, yet perfectly sidestepped the baseball barreling towards home plate—followed by a loud "bang," the white ball flew into the wide glove of catcher Uesugi Yasuyuki.

"Strike!" The umpire signaled by raising his hand.

Meanwhile, a series of astonished gasps arose from the stands—even though the audience was almost accustomed to Lin Guanglai throwing speedballs over 150 kilometers per hour, the visual shock of watching this live was much stronger than from a TV; moreover, the speed of this pitch indeed surpassed the imagination of many:

"152 km/h!!! Oh! Lin Guanglai, on the stage of the Koshien semifinals, has achieved his personal fastest pitch speed breakthrough!!!"

Seeing this number on the outfield scoreboard, the commentator of the match also exclaimed with excitement; let's not talk about other things, the speed of this pitch alone has much to discuss.

It's known that in the more than ninety-year history of the Summer League, no second-year student has ever pitched a speedball of such velocity; the fastest speed of 152 kilometers also made Lin Guanglai the ninth high school student in the history of the tournament to achieve this accomplishment—before him, even a genius like Kikuchi Yuusei only managed this when he was in third year.

Looking at the tall figure of the young pitcher on the mound, many spectators inside Koshien Stadium and in front of their TVs couldn't help but wonder: now that Lin Guanglai in the second year can already pitch a fastball of this level, when he rises to third year and his body further fully develops, will he have the chance to challenge the Japanese high school fastest pitch record of 155 km/h set by Sato Yuuki in 2007? Or perhaps even more daringly, could he take another step forward and push his pitch speed to an unmatched level—say... 160 kilometers?

The match on the field continued, although Miyata Kazuya missed the first pitch, his mindset wasn't affected; after all, it was just a strike difference, which hardly counts in the pitcher-batter confrontation.

The second pitch was quickly thrown by Lin Guanglai; from Miyata Kazuya's perspective, the ball still came straight down the middle, albeit somewhat slower than the previous speedball—though puzzled at what Lin Guanglai was planning, as always, no batter would miss the chance to hit a ball down the middle.

Swinging the bat with full force, Miyata Kazuya still found nothing—just as the ball seemed to be charging straight into the strike zone down the middle to collide with his precisely swung bat, the entire ball's trajectory suddenly shifted outward, slipping toward the outside corner of the right-handed Miyata Kazuya.

"Plop."—Swing and miss.

"Strike!"

A perfect outside slider, Miyata Kazuya was completely tricked into swinging; Lin Guanglai successfully secured his second strike count with this pitch.

Today's Lin Guanglai, perhaps influenced by repeatedly being carefully navigated around, showed much more aggression on the mound than before: for every strike-out pitch, if normally Lin Guanglai would patiently duel and gradually wear down opponents, today he's like a fiery inferno, never missing a single strike-out opportunity.

The third pitch, an unyielding inside fastball, had its entry point precisely locked on the edge of the strike zone; just half a ball's position further would make it a ball—facing this caliber of high-quality pitching, Miyata Kazuya couldn't react at all, resulting in a "looking strikeout."

If, when Miyata Kazuya was struck out initially, Narashino's players had no extra thoughts, Lin Guanglai's subsequent performance made them increasingly feel fearful.

From the start of the fourth inning to the end of the bottom of the eighth inning, during these four and a half innings, apart from an error causing a single, Lin Guanglai didn't allow any Narashino batter to even glimpse the semblance of first base;

The expressions on Narashino players' faces went from full of fighting spirit, to fear of the opponent, to finally dull, losing vitality step by step.

Although this semifinal is still left with the final inning, the 3:0 score advantage, coupled with Lin Guanglai's outstanding state on the mound today, has made people realize one thing—

Waseda Industries is getting closer and closer to their fourth Summer League final in school history!

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