"I’ve got this one!"
Standing deep in right field, Lin Guanglai shouted loudly to his teammates on the field — after pitching almost five innings, reaching the limit of 80 pitches, Lin Guanglai was moved to right field by the coaching staff to defend.
During the innings he pitched, the Japan High School Team’s defense was consistently stable: As a pitcher, Lin Guanglai achieved 6 strikeouts and allowed 1 walk, with no runs scored by the opposition; as a batter, he was struck out four times and walked once, hit a double, and smashed a grand slam.
For Lin Guanglai, who hasn’t celebrated his sixteenth birthday yet, to achieve such results against the American pitchers and batters, stronger than Japan, naturally garnered unanimous praise from the coaching staff and teammates — even the American coaches came over to inquire about him.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Japan High School Team was leading by a large margin with both offense and defense performing online — the scoreboard beyond the outfield showed an 11-point lead — an 18 to 7 score put the game into garbage time early, as both coaches began to switch players extensively, giving players who hadn’t seen much play time more practical experience.
In the at-bat with two outs, the Japan National Team’s closing pitcher was Niigata Meikun’s ace left-hander, Ikedada Jun — his slider had a high completion rate, especially effective against right-handed batters — when facing right-handed batters, Ikedada Jun’s slider almost brushed against the batter’s knees, entering the strike zone, easily making batters hesitate between swinging and choosing a pitch.
After a brief tangle with the batter, in a 2-ball 2-strike situation, the baseball Ikedada Jun pitched was hit by Team USA’s batter into the air, flying towards deep right field.
In his school’s regular practice and matches, Lin Guanglai had often participated in the outfield training as well, thus his judgment on fly balls was quite accurate; Add to that, the natural shoulder strength and arm power advantage of being a pitcher made him more able than others to calmly return the baseball to the infield or even home plate.
Facing the fly ball approaching him, Lin Guanglai didn’t show any signs of panic; on the contrary, his gaze focused on the ball spinning in the air — there wasn’t any glaring sunlight today over the field, making it easier for him to judge the ball’s landing spot;
As the baseball continued to descend, Lin Guanglai kept adjusting his position to match the ball’s trajectory; once he confirmed the landing spot, he stood still at his predicted position, simply opening his glove towards the ball’s direction, waiting for it to land securely in his glove.
"Pop" — accompanied by a crisp sound, the high fly ball in right field was firmly caught by Lin Guanglai.
Three outs, game over.
This match might just be the Japan High School Team’s best performance since arriving in the United States — from gaining the lead in the first inning, the players have held a firm grip on the field:
Be it the continuity of the batting lineup during offense or the suppression of the American batters during defense, everyone performed exceptionally well today — for this, the Japan National Team’s coaching staff was possibly the happiest group there; their excitement might even surpass that of the players on the field.
After the match, players of both teams lined up to greet each other — amidst the crowd, Kelly found Lin Guanglai.
As soon as they met, Kelly straightforwardly expressed his thoughts:
"Lin, I take back what I said a couple of days ago —"
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"Lin, you’re one of the geniuses."
After voicing his admiration, Kelly began passionately expressing his opinions on Lin Guanglai’s performance in the match, as if searching for evidence to support his viewpoint:
"Lin, you’re insane — I recall you haven’t even had your sixteenth birthday yet?"
"My heavens, an Asian who hasn’t turned sixteen, shut down a lineup whose average age is two to three years older, and to top it off, hit a grand slam."
"If I were to tell my former teammates this, they’d absolutely say I’m bragging again!"
"Honestly, Lin, I suggest you come to the United States right after high school; I’m genuinely eager to see your performance in the minor leagues — believe me, with your talent, it wouldn’t take more than two years before you establish yourself in the Major League."
Witnessing Lin Guanglai’s talent, Kelly even assumed the role of a persuader, urging Lin Guanglai to come to the United States and enter the Major League sooner.
Not directly responding to this question, Lin Guanglai only smiled — in Japan, he still harbors great dreams that he hasn’t fulfilled, and will definitely not head to the United States anytime soon.
But simultaneously, a seed silently landed and started to root in his heart.
Having come to the United States, to Los Angeles, how could baseball young lads from across the ocean refuse the lure of watching an MLB game live?
The day after the match, led by the organizers, Japan’s baseball youngsters visited Los Angeles’s baseball Holy Land — Dodger Stadium, toured and also watched a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres live.
The Dodgers sent out their star pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, as the starting pitcher for the home game — his season began with a slump but after regaining form, he secured his position in the team’s main rotation.
This tall and gifted young left-handed pitcher is believed to have future Cy Young-level potential.
In this match, Kershaw pitched 7 innings, conceded 2 runs, and achieved 6 strikeouts, performing quite well — however, the Dodgers’ weak lineup caused them to lose the game.
Ultimately, the visiting Padres took the win in this pitchers’ duel with a score of 2:1, handing the Dodgers’ star pitcher a loss.
Witnessing such a high-quality pitchers’ duel live, the Japanese players naturally kept reminiscing about the various moments of the game — especially Kershaw’s signature move, the 12-6 curveball, left the players in awe.
As a batter, seeing the opposing pitcher throw a super curveball that enters the zone from the 12 o’clock direction, only to drop vertically into the strike zone at 6 o’clock, just imagining it would be exhilarating.
Watching this match indicated the end of the trip to the United States — the next morning, the Japan High School Team’s players were set to board a plane back across the ocean.
That evening, while Lin Guanglai was packing his luggage, someone knocked on his door — upon opening the door, he found Wakayama Yu Supervising accompanied by a familiar foreign face — someone Lin Guanglai recognized as the head coach of the United States City Youth Academy Team.
After calling Lin Guanglai out, walking to a secluded spot, the first words from the American coach were persuading him to head to the United States right after graduation to develop.
"With all my coaching experience over the years, I guarantee you, Lin, once you come to the US post-graduation for a year or two, with your talent, entering the Major League would just be a matter of time."
"We have the best players, the best coaches, the best resources in America — come to the US, Lin, it would be beneficial for your development."
Like in the morning, Lin Guanglai did not directly answer this question, he simply deflected with "I’ll have to consider" — before leaving, the head coach gave Lin Guanglai his contact information, advising him that whenever he came to America, he could contact him, and he would employ all his resources to assist Lin Guanglai.
But truth be told, Lin Guanglai hadn’t thought to such a distant future yet — after these few days of matches, his mind had already drifted back to Tokyo, back to his team.
In his mind, the most crucial task currently was to quickly assemble a strong team during the baseball team’s shift, to fight for entry into next year’s Senbatsu High School Baseball Tournament in the upcoming fall competition.
Waseda Jitsugyo’s folks, wait for me, I, Lin Guanglai, will be back soon!