Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 363 - 15: The Intensity of the Profession

"The starting lineup for tomorrow’s preseason match against the Seibu Lions is as follows..."

"On the pitching side, Guanglai pitched well in the last half inning yesterday, so you’ll be the starting pitcher tomorrow..."

As soon as Manager Koji Akiyama finished speaking, the players instantly erupted into excitement:

"Ohhhhhhh——!!!"

"Amazing, Guanglai, starting in the preseason opener as a high school player!"

Lin Guanglai’s rapport within the SoftBank Team is quite good: As the youngest player in the team’s first squad, the seniors naturally took great care of him, coupled with his diligent training and talent that was almost overflowing and visible to all. In the professional baseball world that emphasizes strength, it’s hard for anyone not to like a player like him.

Upon hearing Manager Akiyama’s arrangement for Lin Guanglai to start pitching, the seniors gathered around him, each extending a hand to rub his head as a gesture of care.

While getting the chance to start as a pitcher in a preseason opener does not necessarily mean that Lin Guanglai will immediately enter the starting rotation after the season begins, it at least shows the coaches’ intentions.

Seeing the team’s harmonious and united locker room atmosphere, Manager Koji Akiyama felt very gratified; however, as the one playing the bad cop, he felt it necessary to tighten the reins on the players, preparing them for the new season.

"Although the match against Seibu Lions is just a preseason game, where winning and losing aren’t the most important things, I hope everyone approaches it with the right attitude. Yesterday’s game against them, we lost 2 to 10, completely getting crushed. Just their Kuriyama Takashi alone drove in four runs—though it can partly be attributed to us not having a complete lineup and playing against their main squad, that isn’t an excuse for us getting beaten so badly!"

"I’ve said what needed saying and scolded who needed scolding. For tomorrow’s match, I hope everyone quickly elevates their condition. Next, we still have warm-up games against Brazil and Cuba, who are coming for the WBC. You don’t want to embarrass yourself all the way to South America, right?"

Among the players’ giggles and laughs, Koji Akiyama delivered his last statement: "So, in tomorrow’s match against Seibu Lions, I expect each person to approach it with the attitude of an official game. If anyone’s still unfocused or absent-minded, then the second squad might be a nice place for them after the new season starts."

The next morning, the preseason warm-up match between Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Saitama Seibu Lions kicked off on time. Both sides continued with the lineup from their first encounter, although compared to SoftBank, Seibu maintained a more complete main squad.

is the year of the World Baseball Classic, and as back-to-back champions from the previous two tournaments, Japan Team’s goal this year is naturally to defend their title and aim for an unprecedented third consecutive win, with many key players from the 12 franchise teams being called up to the national team. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

SoftBank had as many as six players summoned, including the team’s ace pitcher Shetsu Shou, as well as the key batting and defense players Honda Yuichi, Matsuda Naohiro, and Nakagawa Seiichi, making them the team most affected, apart from the Giant Team.

However, for the younger players in the team, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing—at least it means young players have more chances to showcase themselves and vie for a spot in the first squad.

Upon learning that Lin Guanglai would be starting today, many local spectators made a special effort to come to the scene to watch the game—there were roughly 6,000 spectators present in the stands by the field, with most being young female fans. They mostly wore Lin Guanglai’s No. 21 jersey or carried dedicated support items that were recently launched.

After the pre-game warm-up was completed, and the umpire announced the start of the game, Lin Guanglai was already prepared on the pitcher’s mound.

In yesterday’s practice match, where the team suffered an eight-run defeat, Lin Guanglai got an opportunity to pitch in the final inning and performed quite well, delivering two strikeouts and a ground ball out, effortlessly resolving three batters; however, in today’s game, he immediately experienced a totally different level of intensity from yesterday.

Compared to entering yesterday’s game when the result was already decided and the opponent was casual with low enthusiasm, today’s game saw the Seibu Team’s batters being notably aggressive right from the start—especially their batting order, having Asamura Eitou as their first batter, Akiyama Shingo as the second, Kuriyama Takashi as third, and two foreign players as fourth and fifth, basically consisting of their main squad’s powerhouse hitters.

Accustomed to dominating in the high school baseball scene with hardly any rivals, Lin Guanglai truly felt, at this moment, the real prowess of professional baseball players.

Facing the aggressive opponents, even though Lin Guanglai gave his all, he still couldn’t fully curb the Seibu Lions’ attack pace. After inducing a high fly ball to solve the first batter, Asamura Eitou, he let the second and third batters Akiyama and Kuriyama draw a walk and hit a single respectively, which led to a one-out, runners on first and third risky situation.

Considering he’s about to face two of Seibu’s foreign batters next, conceding runs seems inevitable.

Other than the reserved intra-team training during spring camp and appearances in garbage time, the current match was indeed Lin Guanglai’s first time facing professional-level batters—it must be admitted, the pressure from today’s Seibu Team was incomparable to any high school team, even the strongest Osaka Tsubaki.