The baseball field is a fan-shaped, starting from the home plate, plus first, second, and third bases to form a diamond shape, called the infield, and the other bounds area is called the outfield, and the distance between any base packs is 90 feet, and the middle near the home plate is the pitcher's mound, a place made of dirt for pitchers to pitch, with a white pitcher's board on it.

Outside the playing field around a circle is the spectator seat, blocked by a layer of barbed wire, try to avoid the straight ball flying in and injuring the audience, but the barbed wire is not too high, if the high-altitude ball can not be stopped, but the high-altitude ball falls and does not hurt people.

The regional competition is just competing for a place in the qualifiers, the teams are strong and weak, the strong ones are of course the level of Koshien, and the weak ones are not as good as the strong teams in the country, plus it is a battle, there are not many spectators, and those who sit sparsely in the stadium should be the relatives and friends of today's competition team, or simply spies, and other schools send people to study the opponent in advance.

Shikijima Ritsu led Kitahara Shuji and they found a front row position with a good vision and sat down, Kitahara Shuji looked at the scoreboard, the two teams have now competed to the sixth game, the score is 9:1, of which Ishina Industry is ahead by a big score, and the backward side of the Zhengling attached middle school did not give up, and is playing with life.

Kitahara Shuji glanced at him twice and asked, "How long will it take to get to Uchida?"

"That's the end of this one, Kitahara-kun. ”

Then wait, and Yoko also looked at the stadium facilities curiously, and after looking at the whole circle, he turned his eyes to the middle of the field, full of freshness, and pinched the corner of Kitahara Shuji's clothes with a small hand, for fear that he would run away. However, she usually doesn't pay attention to sports, so she can't understand it, but she is too embarrassed to ask, so she just looks a little cramped and uneasy.

Yukiri noticed that she was still very enthusiastic, and asked Lehehe, "Yoko-chan, don't you usually play baseball? What about soft baseball?

Yoko shook her head: "Don't play, Sister Yukiri." ”

"You should play such a fun game, then I'll teach you! It's very simple, it's to hit the ball with a stick, and if you hit it off, you win, and if you can't hit it, you lose. "Xueli is also very good as a teacher.

Yoko was dumbfounded. That's it? Is baseball such a simple game? And Kitahara Shuji glanced at Yukiri and smiled at Yoko, "Don't listen to your Yukiri sister, ask you Shikijima brother if you don't understand!"

Xueli was slightly dissatisfied: "I often play baseball, that's right." Pitching is not interesting, hitting the ball is interesting, all of a sudden hit the ball until you can't see it, you definitely win! I often play with monkeys, they all call me the big sister of the baseball, saying that I have professional baseball strength!"

You're calling it a home run, right? And what kind of cowhide is it bragging! Even if Kitahara Shuji himself doesn't understand it, he doesn't think Yukiri understands.

Shikijima Ritsu is still very gentle, and he has the demeanor of a big brother than Kitahara Shuji, and he smiled and pointed to the field and patiently explained to Yoko, and Kitahara Shuji also stretched out his ears to listen.

Baseball games are generally divided into nine innings, and if the score is the same, the game will be added to the winner, but the Koshien game will be played again tomorrow if it is not won or lost if it is added to the fifteenth round, after all, it is a high-level game, and the teenager who has not grown up can be tired.

The game is divided into two teams, each with nine players on the court, and the two teams take turns attacking and defending.

The attacking team hits the ball thrown by the defending pitcher in turn at home base, and after making an effective stroke, it runs the bases, and finally returns to home plate after first base, second base, and third base, and one point is counted.

Of course, in addition to hitting a home run, that is, hitting the ball to a place where the defender can't catch it, there is generally no chance to run back to home plate to score, but a base bag is advanced by cold drink, such as the first base on first base, and then from first base to second base after the second base, and the second base occupies the position of first base - the rules do not allow two offensive players standing on a base bag, so after the second base is finished, no matter whether the first base is high or not, you have to advance to second base, if there are people on third base.

This kind of hit, which leads to a safe run on base or a direct score, is called a "hit."

It's not uncommon to have offensive players on all three bases in a game, and that's when the fourth batter comes out, makes a clean hit, and then can send a partner on third base back to home plate for a point. If you hit a home run, you would have bought three teammates on the base plus enough time to run back to home plate and score four points in one fell swoop.

If all the players are strong and strong, and the opponent's pitcher is very weak, the ball type has not changed, and the ball speed is slow, then the attacker's hitter can make the opponent desperate with a score of one round and hit one hit after another.

As for defense, the pitcher is the main force, and the best pitcher in a team is called the ace, and the highest goal is to make the opponent unable to hit a ball, then the opponent will naturally lose the ability to score.

If the opponent does not hit three good balls in a row, or the bad ball swings the bat, this is called "strikeout out", replacing the next batsman on the field, accumulating to three batsmen are out, that is, "three outs" then the offense and defense are swapped, which is considered to be half a game - each side attacks and defends once, that is, one game, the game has a total of nine rounds, and the one with more points wins.

In addition to the pitchers, the defenders also have eight home plate catchers, first basemen, second basemen, third basemen, shortstops, stalwarts, left fielders, and right fielders, and if the attacking batters hit the ball in an offensive way, these defenders need to start catching the ball.

For example, the opponent is rushing to second base along the base line, and can be passed to the second baseman to block the opponent's forward route, and the opponent can't go back, a companion is on first base, and two people will foul when they go back to first base, and they can't go to second base, and they will be out of the game as soon as the opponent's second base touches him with the ball, which is called "suffocation"; Or pass to your own player near the opponent and let him catch up with the ball and touch the opposing player who is about to go to base, so that he is out, this is called "interception".

Of course, there are many tactics, and these are just the basics, but Shikishima Ritsu talked for a while, not to mention Yoko, and even Kitahara Shuji was a little confused - no wonder this sport is only popular in a few countries in the United States and Japan, which is also too troublesome.

He summed it up himself, and felt that the main purpose of the defender was to shoot a good shot and not be hit by the opponent, and even if the opponent hit it, he had to make sure that he could receive it, while the offense's goal was to hit as many hits as possible, and the home run was better.

The pace of baseball is very slow, Kitahara Shuji watched the pitcher on the backward side of the field swing his head around to check the opponent's movements, to prevent the opponent from attempting to steal the base, and squatting on the base of the catcher partner to communicate with the code, it seems that the catcher gave him the type of ball he felt unreliable, and he couldn't make up his mind for a while and went to see the supervising teacher off the field, hoping that the supervising teacher would give some instructions, a cautious posture that if the ball is not shot well, it will die, and the grinding will kill people.

However, Kitahara Shuji can also understand that after working hard for a whole year, who doesn't want to achieve a good result, who doesn't want to be the focus of the whole country's fame and fortune - they lost the first round and went home, and in August, Koshien was directly pulled down, and a year's hard work can be said to be worthless.

The fierceness of the competition can be seen, everyone who enters the competition pursues only victory, and only the winner's effort is worthwhile.

Kitahara Shuji is a character that attaches great importance to victory and defeat, interrupted Shikijima Ritsu's popular science, saved the life of Yoko, who had become a mosquito coil eye, and asked, "Is Uchida's opponent strong?"

Shikishima Ritsu turned his head and smiled softly: "I helped the male horse watch last year's video, it doesn't seem to be very strong, if it was very strong, the male horse would not have suffered so much last night." ”

Kitahara Shuji thought about it, if the other party is a super strong team, according to the urine nature of Uchida Yuma, it is estimated that when he called last night, he cried his father and shouted to complain about the injustice of God, instead of pulling him to watch the game.

The game scene was dull for a while, and he got up and went to buy a cold juice drink and some snacks for the big guys. It's mainly bought for Yoko, who is very thrifty himself, but he can't be thrifty with Yoko, and always wants to feed her well.

And Yoko gave Kitahara Shuji a sweet smile and ate it with her sister Yukiri.

These two teams played for more than 40 minutes to finish the remaining three rounds, no wonder Koshien began to hold trials with IH in August, and at this efficiency, it is good that these more than 100 teams can finish in more than a month.

After the game, a sharp air defense siren suddenly sounded, startling Kitahara Shuji, instinctively looked up at the sky, and after a while he realized that this might be some kind of strange tradition, and the court Zhengling attached to the middle school failed to reverse the defeat, losing the game with a score of 14:2, and the last stick was kneeling on the ground and crying bitterly, and finally moved away to his companions with a cloudy face.

No one cared about his tears, the stadium staff quickly and briefly trimmed the field, and soon the scores of the two teams on the scoreboard were cleared, and the second round of the Shina industry entered the second round, and the summer of Zhengling High School ended.

The players from both sides of the next game entered the field to start warming up, including Yuma Uchida. He wears a baseball cap and a baseball jersey with diagonal stripes, and he looks less and more athletic boy. He didn't concentrate on warming up, but looked for it in the stands with his eyes, and soon found Kitahara Shuji and them, rushed over directly, and saluted the brim of his baseball cap through the barbed wire, and shouted with a smile: "Pay attention to the heroic posture of my male horse!"

Normally, if he dares to talk like this, Shikishima Ritsu will definitely give him a blank eye, but this time not only did he not mind, but encouraged him, shouting at him: "Come on, maw!"

Kitahara Shuji, as a fox friend of this slut, couldn't splash him cold water at this time, and also shouted, "Uchida, fight hard!"

Yoko also clenched her small fists and shouted, "Senior, please come on!"

Yukiri stuffed her mouth with banana slices and muttered, "¥&#&*#&#!"

Uchida Yuma had already seen Yukiri and Yoko, squeezed his eyes at Kitahara Shuji, laughed cheaply, said that he was very satisfied with Kitahara Shuji's attention, and brought his girlfriend to cheer him on, which was interesting enough, and then turned his head and ran away - a senior senior was calling him.

The players on both sides began to line up, and it is estimated that this kind of one-time battle is not taken seriously, and it is one after another, which is a bit of a rush. The two sides saluted each other, saluted the four referees, and then the air raid siren sounded again -- Kitahara Shuji was really speechless, what was wrong with this? Why did you play baseball?

Then he took a closer look at the field and found that there was no Uchida Yuma, and he was taken aback, and asked Ritsu Shikijima, "What about Uchida?"

Shikishima Ritsu pointed to the bottom of the seat: "The stallion has entered the cowshed." ”

The cowshed is the rest room for the players who are not playing, and the etymology comes from a tobacco company called "Bison" in the United States. When MLB was first founded, it seemed that this company had hung advertisements on the players' preparation room for a long time, and the preparation room was netted on one side, and then it was passed on and on, and the preparation room was also called the cowshed.

Kitahara Shuji was speechless, why don't you call everyone to come and do it? He asked, "Which position does Uchida play?"

"He's a catcher in the first-year shooting group, and he can't be a starter, so I guess the starting pitcher will play when he's tired!"

Kitahara Shuji was even more speechless, and it sounded like he couldn't play!

He was prepared to beat him to death if Uchida didn't show up immediately, and the game in the stadium had already begun. The opponent was Nagano River High School, wearing a pure white baseball uniform, on the attacking side, and their first hitter was standing in the strike zone with one arm stretched out to signal that he was not ready, desperately holding his feet on the ground, looking at the frame as if he wanted to dig a shallow pit there to prevent the start from being weak after a while.

In the standby area not far from him, Naganogawa's second baseman was kneeling on one knee with his bat to observe the pitchers of the private Daifuku.

Shuji Kitahara glanced at the scoreboard, currently 0:0, hoping to win!