In the top of the eighth inning, after Keio evened the score, Izumi Minoru, the manager of Waseda, unexpectedly didn't make any adjustments—adhering to the old-fashioned Showa belief that "the pitcher must clean up the mess he created," and considering the Kantou Conference wasn't that important, he decided to give Tanaka Justice more chances.
As expected, after Lin Guanglai and his peers graduate next summer, Tanaka Justice will become the new ace pitcher of Waseda—if he can't handle the pressure of this level of competition, how would the manager and teammates trust him with the mound in higher-level, larger-scale games?
Luckily, Tanaka Justice didn't disappoint Izumi Minoru's expectations—although he was caught off guard at the start of this inning, he quickly adjusted after that long pause:
With a ground ball and two strikeouts, he somewhat redeemed his earlier mistakes and prevented Keio from taking advantage to overturn the score.
