"We won! We won!"

In the Alps Stand, seeing the players celebrating on the field, the supporters of Waseda Jitsugyo erupted into loud cheers; led by Suzuki Kensuke and Tsuchiya Ryota, the veteran players hugged each other tightly, tears in their eyes, as if they were still part of the team.

Last summer, the team lost to Konan High School in the semifinals, indirectly contributing to their opponent's consecutive championship victories. A year later, on the same field, they decisively swept Narashino and advanced to the finals—the history of last year did not repeat itself!

If you ask these already-graduated former players in the stands whether they regret not making it to the Koshien finals as part of this team, probably each of them would have some similar emotions; but more than that, they would be proud of once being part of this great team.

Returning to the players' area, Waseda Jitsugyo's players leisurely packed up their equipment and trash. As the vice-captain of the team, Kenshu Yasuda helped Lin Guanglai wrap an ice pack on his right arm, then sincerely said:

"Guanglai, thank you—thank you for choosing our team."

This is what the senior players at this moment most wanted to express.

Before Lin Guanglai joined Waseda Jitsugyo, the team had just suffered a significant setback, exiting early in the fourth round of the summer local tournament, and had not competed nationally for four years since their victory in 2006.

When they thought their high school baseball careers would just end muddily like this, Lin Guanglai's sudden rise brought a qualitative change to the team:

Last year's Summer League semifinals, autumn tournament runner-up; this year's Senbatsu champion, Kantou Conference champion—and tomorrow, they will fight for the Summer Koshien championship on the dream stage.

Recalling the regrets and unwillingness from their first year, and seeing their current high spirits, Kenshu Yasuda knew that all this was brought by the younger player in front of him—at this moment, his heart was filled with deep emotions, besides gratitude, he couldn't think of anything else to express his feelings.

In response, Lin Guanglai gave a carefree smile and didn't say anything; he just patted Yasuda's shoulder, constantly comforting the emotional Kenshu Yasuda who was about to cry.

After a while, a staff member from Takano Ren came to invite Lin Guanglai to attend an interview for the best player.

In this game, as a pitcher, Lin Guanglai delivered a complete game shutout victory, allowing only one hit due to a teammate's error, and almost single-handedly suppressed Narashino's lineup; and affected by the opponent's intentional walks, Lin Guanglai also finished the game without a hit for the first time in this tournament: 4 plate appearances, 4 walks, 0 hits, 0 RBIs.

Both aspects of his performance drew great interest from the media and reporters who couldn't wait to get some words from Lin Guanglai and write extensively about him.

"Mr. Lin, with today's game over, your record of consecutive 4-game homers ends here—what are your thoughts on the opponent intentionally walking you in four plate appearances?"

Having just won the game, Lin Guanglai, in a happy mood, didn't dwell much on this question and calmly said:

"For me personally, achieving good stats is certainly nice, but more important than that is the team's performance—today's opponent chose to intentionally walk me, and that's just one way to approach the game, I have nothing to comment on; if I must say something, it's that I hope to do better offensively in tomorrow's game."

After this question, the reporters asked another question they were most concerned about: "Lin, regarding missing the first perfect game in Summer Koshien history by one hit, what do you have to say?"

When this question was posed by the reporters, all eyes in the venue focused on Lin Guanglai on the interview stage—this was something all those concerned with Takano Ren, including these reporters, felt sorry for. Missing an unprecedented achievement due to a teammate's error was something people couldn't easily get over.

In response, Lin Guanglai chuckled and countered the reporters with a question: "May I ask, when did that hit happen?"

The reporters looked at each other, apparently unsure of the significance of his question, but someone still answered: "Lin, that hit happened in the bottom of the fourth inning, really unfortunate…"

"Right, everyone knows that hit happened in the bottom of the fourth inning, nobody would think there's a problem then, right—if it had happened in the bottom of the ninth, maybe I would have regrets, but why worry about something that wouldn't have happened anyway?"

"More important than this is that through this game, we've entered the long-desired Koshien final, and everyone in the team gained a lot—in my view, that's what's truly important."

With the summer competition having reached its final step, Lin Guanglai had already set his sights on tomorrow's final—in his heart, he was determined to defeat Koushing Academy and bring the deep crimson victory flag back to West Tokyo.

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