Chapter 37: The Second Battle of Jiaziyuan in Spring
Seido won the match against Hokkaido Ei with a score of 7:0.
Everyone in Qingdao cheered and ran to the center of the field to celebrate their victory in the first round.
When the players from Seido and Hokkaido Sakae lined up, most of the contestants from Hokkaido Sakae had red eyes and started crying. Although many people from Seido could not bear this, Koshien is such a place. In addition to taking pictures when shaking hands,
You can't do much more than tap the other person on the shoulder.
After bowing to the Hokkaido Ei players, everyone at Aomichi stood in front of home plate and sang the school song together, and then ran to the stands on the Aomichi side to bow to the cheering group and the spectators who supported them.
After returning to the rest area, everyone in Qingdao quickly packed up the items they had brought. The next game will start soon, and players from other schools will also use this place.
After packing up the belongings they brought, everyone in Qingdao lined up again, bowed to the reporters, and followed Director Kataoka into the exit aisle.
Soon Director Kataoka and team leader Higashi Kiyokuni were left behind by the waiting host, while Director Ohta left first with the others.
In the next game between Yokohama and Luzhengshe, everyone in Qingdao should stay and watch, but because they can’t find a good viewing seat, and the winner between Yokohama and Luzhengshe needs them to advance to the semi-finals.
encounter, so it is more appropriate to let the players who are tired after the game go back to the B&B to watch the TV broadcast.
The two-kilometer journey took the school bus only three to four minutes to take them back to their B&B.
After getting off the bus, everyone in Qingdao went straight to the conference room on the first floor, regardless of the sweat and dirt on their bodies, and turned on the TV to carefully watch the ongoing match between Yokohama and Luzhengsha.
Although they rushed back quickly, they were still delayed for a certain amount of time due to post-match interviews. The game had already entered the second half of the third game, and the score between the two sides was 0:0.
They were so engrossed in watching the live broadcast of the game on the TV that they didn't even notice that the service staff from the B&B came over.
In the room used by everyone at Qingdao as a conference room, the game between Yokohama and Luzhengsha was already in the second half of the sixth inning.
"Still couldn't score."
"Judging from these three games, both sides' defense was very good. No wonder they couldn't score."
"A lot of hits, but no runs scored."
Everyone in Qingdao was talking about this. Kentaro Matsuda took out the scorebook and recorded the data of this game.
It wasn't until the first half of the eighth inning that their game turned around. Yokohama hit a home run from the ace Uotani of Ryuseisha, scoring the first run and breaking the stalemate between the two sides.
After that, the two sides struggled with a score of 1.0 until the end of the game, and Lu Zhengshe lost to Yokohama by one point.
After watching the game, the Qingdao team members adjusted the TV to video mode, then got up and left the conference room, walked to the lobby on the first floor to find their backpacks and golf equipment, took them back to their rooms, and then took a change of clothes.
Take a bath in the bathroom with your clothes.
Qingdao's second round match against Kansai will be held five days later on March 29th. During this period, there will be enough time for them to rest and train.
Four days passed quickly. During this period, in addition to daily training, the Qingdao people also collected a lot of information on Kansai's previous regional competitions and other schools' research on them.
On the afternoon of March 28, Director Kataoka began to announce the starting lineup for the second round:
"Tomorrow's starting lineup is announced below. The first base, shortstop, Fukuda; the second base, second baseman, Tanaka; the third base, right fielder, Ohta; the fourth base, third baseman, East; the fifth base, center fielder,
Murasuke; sixth bat, left fielder, Fujii; seventh bat, first baseman, Yuuki; eighth bat, catcher, Matsuda; ninth bat, pitcher, Iori."
"Yes!" The person whose name was called by Director Kataoka nodded in response.
Director Kataoka thought for a moment and felt that he had nothing to add, so he could only tell them to rest early today and then dismiss the meeting.
Everyone in Qingdao left the conference room one after another, chatting with each other and walked to their rooms.
…
The next day, 8:45 am.
On the field, the stadium staff were busy making up the ground. On both sides of the field, players from Seido and Kansai were doing their own warm-up exercises.
Iori Yagami stood on the high ground of the bullpen and practiced pitching with Matsuda-senpai back and forth.
"call out!"
"Bang!"
"call out!"
"Bang!"
Kentaro Matsuda stretched out his ball sleeve to catch Yagami Ya's impetuous pitch.
The practice time always flies by very quickly, and Yagami hasn't had enough time yet when the staff is signaling to them that their second round with Kansai is about to begin.
Players from Seido and Kansai lined up on the sidelines of the field. Following the referee's order, they rushed onto the field at the same time and lined up in two teams in front of home plate. After bowing, the players from Seido exited the field and Kansai
The remaining team members stayed behind and dispersed to their respective guarding positions.
After Kansai pitcher Masaki Nakamura and catcher Obara caught a few pitches, Aomichi's bat Taro Fukuda walked to home plate, swung his bat a few times, and then walked into the batter's box and stood up.
The referee looked at his watch and found that it was almost nine o'clock in the morning. He signaled that the game would officially begin.
"Buzz-buzz-buzz!"
At 9:01 a.m., the sound of air raid sirens sounded over the stadium.
Following the signal given to him by catcher Obara, Nakamura Masaki swung his arm and threw the first pitch of the game.
"call out!"
"Whoosh!"
"Bang!"
Kansai catcher Obara caught the baseball flying from the pitcher's mound.
“strike.“
The first pitch thrown by Masaki Nakamura, Aomichi's swing by Taro Fukuda failed.
Obara stood up and threw the baseball in his hand back to the pitcher Nakamura Masaki. After squatting down again, he signaled to him, opened and arranged the ball cover. Nakamura Masaki stood on the pitcher's mound and nodded, straightened his body, raised his left
Legs, raised his right hand, tilted his body's center of gravity forward, and then shook his arm with all his strength, the baseball flew out of his palm.
"call out!"
After the baseball flew off the pitcher's mound and headed toward home plate, Taro Fukuda stepped sideways with his left foot and swung the bat with both hands.
"Whoosh!"
The bat that Taro Fukuda swung was still a step too late, and the baseball rushed over the top of the home plate first and rushed into the ball cover set by catcher Obara.
“strike.“
Taro Fukuda frowned, waved the metal bat in his hand, and then raised the bat again, waiting for a hit.
"call out!"
The baseball flew from the pitcher's mound again, and Taro Fukuda swung the metal bat in his hand even faster.
"Whoosh!"
However, this time, the flying baseball was delayed a beat. When Taro Fukuda's bat had swept across the entire home plate area, it flew over the home plate area and got into the open ball cover of the catcher Obara.
“strike out.“
The referee signaled that Seido's batter was out, and Kansai successfully got the first out in the first half of the first inning. This chapter has been completed!