Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama City, Yokohama High School Baseball Training Field.

"I've got this ball!!!"

"Throw it straight to home plate!!!"

"Run fast, Guanglai, you can make it to home plate!!!"

"Yeah, we scored!!!"

By home plate, Lin Guanglai, who just completed a slide to score, stood up from the ground, continuously shaking off the dirt from his body; not far from him in the player area were his Waseda teammates, all with joyful expressions, each stretching out their hands wanting to high-five Lin Guanglai in celebration.

On the field is a practice match between Waseda Industries and Yokohama High School—a scene that has frequently occurred over the past week.

Today is the sixth day of the training camp in Kanagawa and also the second-to-last day. Over the past week, this batch of players from Waseda truly experienced what a training camp means—

The intensity of daily training and matches was so overwhelming that many players found it hard to bear; at the end of each day's training, some would fall into a deep sleep, sleeping straight through to the next morning while teammates helped each other relieve their muscles.

The training content is actually quite simple, divided into three parts: physical enhancement exercises, specialized batting/pitching enhancement, and specific field defense practices;

And during these practices, the four schools participating in this training camp would face off against each other in a series of practice matches, showcasing their schools' strengths while having phases to verify the results of their training.

It's noteworthy that these exchange matches are far from being just friendly games—there are actual rankings!

Currently underway on the field is the final exchange match of this training camp: Waseda is facing the host Yokohama High School.

Before this match, Yokohama High School easily defeated its two old rivals, with an average winning margin of over 3 points per game;

Meanwhile, Waseda had a whopping 7-point victory over Kiyonokura Academy but slipped up against the much weaker Tokogakuen Academy on paper, losing by just 1 point.

Though the primary purpose of these exchange-friendly matches is to test the team's condition, with victories and defeats carrying no essential meaning, all players present are vibrant and spirited youths of 15 or 16 years old—

In the eyes of Waseda's players, playing away means not only representing their school but also the entire Tokyo High School Baseball identity:

Winning the Summer and being close second in the Autumn Tournament; if they leave Yokohama with just a 1-2 record, wouldn't that disgrace Tokyo Region's other schools?

If this news gets to their arch-rival in Kanagawa, Keio, they wouldn't be kind in their mockery on future encounters.

Thus, in this final match against Yokohama High School, Waseda's team has rallied all their strength, vowing to defeat the strongest team in this training camp to earn pride for themselves.

But Yokohama High School is not an easy opponent.

Over the last two to three years, Yokohama High School was once suppressed by Tokai University Sagami High School, seldom advancing to national competitions; yet a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, and to many baseball youths seeking a stage to showcase their talents, Yokohama High School remains an excellent platform.

In terms of the number of professional players alone, even without considering Matsuzaka Daisuke, who is thriving in the United States, the current Nihon Professional Baseball features Yokohama alumni like Chunichi Dragons' Fukuda Eiji, Hokkaido Ham's Tsuchiya Kenji, and the Seibu Lions' pitcher Yongjing Xiuzhang, who won Nihon Professional Baseball's highest honor for pitchers, the Sawamura Award, at the end of last year.

Such a high success rate naturally attracts many high school baseball youths—even those who have to leave their hometowns and venture solo to Kanagawa are willing to make the move as long as they can get into the Yokohama High School Baseball Club.

Lin Guanglai believes that if both teams on the field can successfully enter next year's Summer甲, then this Yokohama High School team on the field is definitely one of Waseda's biggest competitors in the future.

Centered around first-year ace pitcher Yanagida Yuuya and second-year catcher Kondo Kensuke, under the legendary tutor Watanabe Mototsugu's guidance, Yokohama High School exhibits incredibly high baseball IQ and tactical literacy.

Through these few days of interaction, Lin Guanglai became friends with them and learned many stories about them from themselves and others around them:

The first-year Yanagida Yuuya hails from Miyazaki Prefecture in the Kyushu Region, known as a local baseball prodigy during his middle school years, having even been selected for the Japan National Team and winning the Most Outstanding Pitcher Award in middle school baseball—if everything had gone smoothly, he should rightfully have become a model Kyushu ballboy, carving out his path at a strong local school.

But misfortunes cluster upon the unfortunate—at 12, Yanagida Yuuya's father died in a traffic accident, leaving the entire family burden on his mother and aged grandmother.

After graduating middle school, Yanagida Yuuya chose to leave his hometown and family, going alone to Yokohama High School; when asked about the reason by those concerned, his reply was:

"As the only male in the family, I want to become a professional player, so my family can have a comfortable life."

Indeed, there were no grand narratives like "dreams" or "ambitions;" Yanagida Yuuya came to Yokohama simply to increase his chances of becoming a professional player and letting his family live a better life.

His partner, Kondo Kensuke, is the sole player in the Yokohama Baseball Club not recruited through special recommendation: having played soft baseball since childhood, Kondo Kensuke achieved remarkable results as a core member of the Chiba Lotte Junior Team;

Upon entering high school, facing his father's opposition that "a soft baseball background can't adapt to hardball," Kondo Kensuke proved his worth with his talent—he nominated himself to join the hardball baseball club and passed layers of assessments set by the supervisor;

In his first year at the Kanagawa Tournament, he became the main shortstop as a first-year student, attaining a batting average of 0.438 in the regional tournament and subsequently transitioned to the team's starting catcher role.

Oogura Seiichiro, the chief of Yokohama High School Baseball Club, praised him thus: "(Kondo)'s overall strength is sufficient to rank among the top three catchers in Yokohama High School's history"; now he is also the captain of the Yokohama High School Baseball Team.

Yanagida Yuuya may not have fast pitch speed, but his mastery and deception of breaking balls far surpass his peers, giving Waseda's batters a hard time; Kondo Kensuke, with his exceptional throwing prowess and high baseball intelligence, is a formidable catcher excelling in both offense and defense.

Additionally, Yokohama also boasts an excellent first-year left-handed pitcher Soma Kazuma, significantly compensating for the endurance issues caused by Yanagida Yuuya's reliance on breaking balls as his main pitch.

In previous games, right-handed ace Yanagida Yuuya would pitch about seven innings, while left-handed Soma Kazuma would serve as the closer, supplemented by the assistance of super catcher Kondo Kensuke, this process being Yokohama High School's formula for victory—even the local Kiyonokura and Tokogakuen were rather helpless against it.

Even though Lin Guanglai just scored a run back to home plate with teammates' help, Waseda has only managed to narrowly overtake the score—exchanging match consumption should not be excessive, after mutual agreement among schools, the match adopts a 7-inning format.

And now, the game has completed a full six innings—a 3:2 score in a seven-inning match isn't secure, as there's always a possibility of being swept away by the opponent in one fell swoop.

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