Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 289 - 154: Vow of Sorrow (Double-Length)

In the first instance after the semifinal ended, the official website of the Tokyo High School Baseball Federation updated its announcement, expressing congratulations to Waseda Industries for advancing to the Summer Koshien finals; many high schools in the Tokyo region also followed suit and extended their congratulations— it’s been five years since a team from the Tokyo forces reached the Summer Koshien finals, and now Waseda Jitsugyo makes a comeback, which is a great encouragement for all teams in the Tokyo area.

A few hours later, in the campus of Waseda Industrial School, a huge celebratory banner was directly hung on the teaching building opposite the school gate: "Congratulations to our school for advancing to the finals of the 93rd Championship Tournament!" At the same time, the school officials of Waseda Jitsugyo also issued an initiative to all students, hoping they could collectively go to Koshien tomorrow to cheer for the school’s baseball team.

While the outside fervor continued to ferment, the players of Waseda Jitsugyo had already returned to Shuiming Manor—under the coordination of Minister Sasaki, the players took showers and did stretches as needed. Before the finals, there must be no mishaps.

Lin Guanglai was assisted by relevant personnel to perform post-match muscle relaxation—he pitched the entire game today. Although he only faced 28 batters in total and the pitch count wasn’t particularly high, he has to pitch again in less than 24 hours, so the physical fatigue was unavoidable. Muscle relaxation was also to help him feel better the next day.

It must be said that this process was really painful. Even Lin Guanglai, who always believed he had a strong tolerance, couldn’t control his expressions under the "claws" of the medical staff, crying out continuously in pain.

After the players made it to the finals, the female captain of Shuiming Manor, Bai Shi, fulfilled her pre-tournament promise—on that night, the lady in her seventies personally went to the kitchen to prepare the "Victory V Meal," exactly the same as the one before the 2006 Summer Koshien finals for the players.

The meal, mainly consisting of pork chops and chicken chops, paired with lots of vegetables and carbohydrates, allowed the players to have a splendid feast tonight. Having this dinner symbolizing victory and championship, even their confidence in winning the finals greatly increased.

After dinner and showers, the players of Waseda Jitsugyo gathered around the TV to watch the evening’s "Hot Battle Koshien" program—having historically entered the Summer Koshien finals, everyone on the team was eager to see how the major Takano media praised them.

But today’s program content was destined to disappoint most of them:

If the program group had, as usual, focused the program on the two schools that lost in the semifinals, the players of Waseda Jitsugyo might not have said anything, after all, that’s the program’s characteristic; but today’s Hot Battle Koshien program, besides the stories before and after the semifinals about the two losing schools, most of the program was focused on Waseda’s opponent in tomorrow’s final, Koushing Academy from Aomori Prefecture.

The reason was no other than this—a team from the Tohoku region making its way into the finals of the Summer Koshien during a year marked by the Great East Japan Earthquake, carrying the expectations of countless people from the disaster areas—it’s the kind of miraculous plot you’d only find in novels and anime, but it was happening in reality at that moment.

It should be known that Yagaki City in Aomori Prefecture, where Koushing Academy is located, was a severely affected area by the earthquake, and the region also suffered tsunami impact, with significant disaster conditions;

Moreover, Koushing Academy, entering the Koshien finals for the first time in school history, perfectly hit the sweet spot for Japanese audiences:

Before their current supervisor Nakai Sonoki took over the team in 1994, Koushing Academy was a weak team struggling for a single win in local games, with losing having become the norm for the team. During practice matches with other teams, opponents often only sent their second-string because they despised Koushing Academy’s weak strength.

It was such a team that, relying on Spartan-style training with an intensity almost leading to stress fractures, having first entered the Summer Koshien in 1997 and finally this summer, with the golden generation of the team, reached its blooming moment, advancing to the finals for the first time, aiming for the school’s first-ever Koshien victory.

Aside from the inspirational story of the baseball team and the earthquake, there was also an extremely important factor behind the widespread admiration for Koushing Academy—this involves an old Koshien event "curse," known as the "Curse of the Northeast."

The Tohoku region, with a rich history and comprising six prefectures in East Japan, naturally also produced many baseball talents, including well-known players like Rokkai Hoshimura, Sasaki, Yu Darvish, who are either from Tohoku or trained in baseball there. But this land, which nurtured so many professional players, had never seen a single high school reach the top of Japan.

Before Mitsuhoshi Academy advanced to the finals, Tohoku representatives had made it to the Summer Koshien finals five times, yet without exception, all attempts resulted in failure, with not a single champion crowned for 93 years:

In 1915, the 1st tournament, Akita Middle School narrowly lost 1-2 to Kyoto High School;

In 1969, Aomori’s Misawa High School, boasting ace pitcher Koji Ota, faced Ehime’s Matsuyama Commercial in the finals—the two sides battled through 18 innings to a 0-0 tie; in the rematch, Misawa lost 2-4;

In 1971, Fukushima’s Iwaki High School, with the outstanding performance of small-sized strong pitcher Tamura, reached the finals—however, they lost 0-1 to Kanagawa’s Kiyonokura Academy;

In 1989, led by ace pitcher Motoki Ogoe, Miyagi’s Sendai Yuuying advanced to the finals, and in the finals against Teikyo Junior & Senior High School, the two sides went to extra innings in a 0-0 draw—yet in the 10th inning, Sendai Yuuying let the opponent score 2 consecutive points, eventually losing 0-2;

In 2003, led by the then second-year mixed-race prince Yu Darvish, Miyagi’s Tohoku High School met Ibaraki’s Joso Gakuin in the finals—despite leading by 2 points in the 2nd inning, they suffered a major comeback, painfully losing the championship with a 2-4 total score.

Five finals, five tragic losses, Koshien victory seemed to have become a curse for the Tohoku region: no matter how much effort their players put in or how beautifully they played in the tournament, once they got to the finals, something would always lead to them losing, becoming the backdrop for their opponents’ victory.

And just 8 years after the last defeat, Mitsuhoshi Academy once again represented Tohoku in the Summer Koshien finals, launching the 6th challenge towards the Koshien victory—in this special context of the year, they naturally attracted countless attention.

Under such an atmosphere, quite a few spectators preconceived this notion:

"Could it be that this year...it’s finally Tohoku’s turn to win?"

To emphasize this kind of tragic atmosphere, the Hot Battle Koshien program group even specifically found Koji Ota, the ace pitcher who also represented Aomori Prefecture in the Summer Koshien finals 42 years ago, now 59 years old, for an interview—a really significant lineup;

In contrast, regarding Waseda’s return to the Summer Koshien finals stage after 5 years, the group only briefly reviewed their previous three finals in the school’s history, merely scratching the surface; compared to Waseda, the acknowledged hot favorite, the program group still leaned more towards the underdog.

Of course, though today’s program may have differed somewhat from what Waseda players anticipated, after all, it was just a program and couldn’t influence their determination to win—the program content held little interest, and many players chose to return to their rooms for sleep before they even finished watching.

Late at night, Izumi Minoru and Sasaki Shinichi patrolled the rooms one by one—unlike the night before the Senbatsu finals when many players suffered from insomnia, this time for the Summer Koshien, everyone slept soundly.

As the sun rose again, when they opened their eyes once more, the last Chapter of this beautiful summer was about to unfold officially.