Inside the ballpark, led by their respective team captains, the players of Waseda Jitsugyo and Nihon University lined up on both sides of home plate and then took off their hats to salute their opponents.

If someone had just turned on the TV at this moment, judging by the players' expressions, they wouldn't be able to tell who the victor was—whether Waseda Jitsugyo or Nihon University, neither side's players had a smile on their face.

For Waseda Jitsugyo, losing the game also likely meant losing their entry to the Senbatsu High School Baseball Tournament, and naturally, the players' spirits weren't uplifted, even for Lin Guanglai, who hit several home runs;

To be honest, if he could exchange each strikeout for his team winning the game and gaining the entry to Senbatsu and Shengong, Lin Guanglai wouldn't mind being struck out each at-bat by the opponent.

In his view, compared to the team's achievements, personal stats were of little importance—after all, Koshien is not a professional game, and there are no awards like Best Player or Best Pitcher.

For Nihon University, having won the game, secured victory, and obtained the Shengong entry, the Senbatsu entry for the coming year was almost assured—but they still felt some discomfort about this match.

Especially for Yoshinaga Kentarou, who pitched a complete game victory, this strange feeling was even more intense:

While his performance wasn't bad, delivering 10 strikeouts throughout the game, and securing several shutouts against Waseda Jitsugyo, allowing only five or six hits in the entire match, definitely making him a key contributor to the team's victory;

But if you say his performance was impressive, it's hard to call it great when a pitcher in a nine-inning game gets hit for three home runs by the same batter.

Both sides' players, holding similar yet different feelings, stepped out from their respective ranks to greet their opponents post-game.

"You played really well!"

Almost every Nihon University's player specifically sought out Lin Guanglai to greet him—as opponents, they were unquestionably impressed by Lin Guanglai's superb performance during the game and offered sincere praise.

Nihon University's coach Ogura Quanyou also expressed his views towards Izumi Minoru, although his tone carried a hint of sourness:

"Izumi, you sure are lucky to have found such a great talent."

"If we had this kid at our school—I'd dare to say we'd win the national tournaments every year this year, next year, and even the year after!"

In response, Coach Izumi Minoru simply smiled without speaking, though his lips couldn't help but curl up—clearly, this praise from an old rival was effective for him.

However, when he turned around to face his own players, Izumi Minoru's entire face immediately fell.

The Waseda Jitsugyo players, seeing their coach's stern expression, didn't dare speak loudly, and solemnly stood in place.

After the awards ceremony for the autumn tournament concluded, with trophies and certificates in hand, the Waseda Jitsugyo players had just stepped into the players' rest area when they felt the full force of their coach's storm-like reprimands.

Every player who played today, including Lin Guanglai, was thoroughly scolded by Coach Izumi Minoru from top to bottom, inside and out, especially the bottom batting lineup whose performance fluctuated throughout today's game and the entire autumn tournament.

In fact, Coach Minoru's stern expression was intentionally displayed; for this game's result, he'd prepared himself mentally long ago, knowing that with Waseda Jitsugyo's current strength, winning against Nihon University by sheer force was tough.

According to the original plan, Lin Guanglai was supposed to pitch today—but who could foresee yesterday's game against National Academy Kugayama went into eleven innings of extra play, straining Waseda Jitsugyo's already limited pitching power even further.

For field players, even with consecutive games every day for a week, it's mostly physical and mental fatigue; however, pitchers absolutely can't throw long innings consecutively for two days, otherwise it's killing the player's pitching career.

Since the third-year students retired, though Waseda Jitsugyo still has several nominal pitchers, few can participate in high-level matches, showing a severe lack of immediate fighting power; plus, the issue of offensive coherence requires more time for adjustment.

"It seems like finding a capable substitute for Guanglai must be prioritized..." Coach Izumi Minoru thought as he gazed at the players before him.

After the autumn Tokyo tournament final ended, online discussions surged again, with many baseball fans chiming in on a thread discussing Lin Guanglai's performance in the final.

[Post 1: Hahaha, witnessed the scene, Lin's skill is too strong! Scoring three homers in one game felt like playing Big Head Baseball on the lowest difficulty—ps: managed to catch one of his three homers (image) (image)]

[Post 2: Envious of the poster above, but I have to say, a player who can pitch and continuously hit home runs like this can't even be created in Big Head Baseball, let alone with such a handsome face.]

…

[Post 22: My goodness, haven't seen such an outrageous high school player in years—until the commentator mentioned it, I didn't realize Lin Guanglai, as a batter, hadn't struck out once in this autumn tournament, only being thrown out at most.]

[Post 23: What? Not a single strikeout? Ridiculous!

[Post 24: Ridiculous +1]

[Post 25: Ridiculous +2]

[Post 77: Ridiculous +10086]

…

[Post 111: Why is Lin only a freshman this year!!! Can't wait to see him turn professional, as a Lyon fan, I can't wait to see him join us, forming the strongest pitching duo with Kikuchi!]

[Post 112: Why can't he come to the Giant? The best players should pair with Japan's best team, and we have Abe, a super catcher, forming the strongest pitcher-catcher duo is perfect, isn't it?]

[Post 113: How about joining Rakuten, team up with Masa (nickname for Tanaka Masahiro), I don't know which lineup in Japan could possibly break through.]

[Post 114: Join SoftBank! Our president is an alumni of Waseda Jitsugyo, and SoftBank is just missing a young, promising face as a pitcher, management please take a look quickly!]

…

Teenagers' emotions come quickly and go quickly—on the return bus, Waseda Jitsugyo players had already moved past the disappointment of losing the match, with some even discussing plans for the upcoming vacation.

Due to being knocked out in the autumn tournament, all official matches for Waseda Jitsugyo Baseball Club this year came to a close—November's Shengong tournament will be the last major event of the year, after which high school baseball will enter its winter break until the fire of the spring Koshien lights up again in March next year.

For Lin Guanglai, these past six months have seen him, as a main player, win the summer regional tournament, gain entry to Summer甲, create records in Summer甲, and achieve decent success as runners-up in the autumn tournament.

Sitting in the last row of the bus, Lin Guanglai, with eyes closed, had already started to ponder next year's journey—whether eligible for entry to the spring tournament is unknown, yet he's prepared to face the challenges of next year's spring tournament and Summer甲.

Sitting at the front, Coach Izumi Minoru stood up, looking at the slightly restless players, announcing a series of arrangements for the team's future:

"Firstly, everyone has worked hard during this period of training and matches! We'll be taking a week off next week, granting everyone a good rest."

"Oh yeah!" The players erupted with cheers upon hearing this, "Thank you, Coach," "Long live Coach," and similar expressions continuously reverberated.

"However," Minoru shifted his tone: "After next week's rest, I've already arranged for team training."

"Everyone on the main team—join me in Kanagawa Prefecture for training."

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