Chapter 14: Preparing for Battle
Ichiro Sato, who is used as a mascot by the players, actually has an indispensable role. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
As the team's coach, baseball minister, and acting overseer. All paperwork or administrative formalities related to the team must be handled by him.
One of the most important is the arrangement of practice competitions.
"From now until the summer qualifiers, try to have practice matches every week."
At an informal team meeting after training, captain Kazuhei Fukushima told his teammates about this.
Since entering high school, Fukushima has never been more motivated than recently. Not only did he not relax in his training, but his original attitude of turning a blind eye to other teammates also changed.
"Maybe it's because Yabe went to high school this year."
That's how most of the rest of my teammates feel. Fukushima's appreciation for Akio Yabe has been evident to everyone since his junior high school days.
But now Fukushima has another new discovery of his own - Li Yuanrang, a rookie who has never touched baseball before high school.
Although in the eyes of his teammates, Li Yuanrang's performance in the last game was just luck. Li Yuan has always felt that as long as other new members join, he will lose his first-mover position.
But Fukushima trusted his own judgment, and he felt that Li Yuanrang was playing with his own talent. Even with this talent alone, it is enough to be considered an upper-middle-level player in college baseball.
What's more, there is still some time before the summer conference qualifiers, and talented people always grow faster than others. Before the official competition, Li Yuanrang still has a lot of room for growth.
And what this kind of growth needs is actual combat drills.
"That's the density of practice games that the team used to have when Minami was at Kawasaki Kokko."
Fukushima showed the team a photograph of a mobile phone photo of the former Hirakuen Middle School's ace Minami Yoichi High School where he attended the school as a freshman. It was his schedule at the time.
Although it was already two years ago, the average baseball school is almost like this.
Except for the days when there are official competitions. It's full of games every weekend, often two a day. And the opponents came from all over Japan.
The venue of the tournament is not limited to the local course in Kawasaki, but also in many cases to neighboring prefectures and even further afield.
"There's also a trip to Hokkaido, and there's also a ...... in Kyushu."
Li Yuanrang glanced over, and these races, which were far away from the Kanto region, caught his attention.
"Local teams of comparable strength are sometimes afraid of exposing weaknesses and will not easily play practice matches against their potential opponents......"
Most of the various questions about baseball are now taught to Lee by Yabe.
After explaining to his teammates the importance of frequent practice matches to improve their strength. Fukushima also announced the schedule of three practice matches that he and Sato have recently won together.
Li Yuanrang looked at the opponents and times of the game written on the whiteboard of the department. One of the teams didn't seem quite right.
"What kind of team is this 4-chome shopping street?"
"It's a nearby grass ball team."
Kusano ball is a common name for amateur baseball in Japan. Generally speaking, however, amateur clubs that aim to play in national tournaments, or corporate teams that exist as corporate billboards, are not counted.
The typical grass ball team is an amateur team with the same neighbors as the core and the main purpose of enjoying the baseball process.
"What will be the level of the other party?"
After listening to the introduction of the opponent, Li Yuanrang's mind was the kind of middle-aged people he had seen playing football in the open space before.
"It is said that I have been competing in hard competitions all the time, and I usually use wooden sticks to strike. This time, they were contacted on an online amateur baseball tournament opponent recruitment website, which showed that the winning rate was more than half based on the past record listed on the website. ”
According to Fukushima's explanation, the opponent's strength may be slightly stronger than that of ordinary college baseball clubs.
In fact, in modern society, if you use the Internet to find amateur teams as opponents, you can make appointments for matches every day. But if it's a team you don't know, you don't know if it's good for the team's training.
If you play against a team with poor quality, it will be even more difficult to lose unnecessary injuries to your players. Or if there are a few bad teenagers on the opposing team, causing an incident such as a brawl on the field, the team may also face suspension.
The team that Fukushima has picked now does not have to worry about this.
The team is composed of young and middle-aged men who like baseball in a shopping street near the school. In a sense, it's a neighbor of the players. If you meet, you will probably feel that each other's faces are familiar. It's a reassuring opponent.
For this kind of amateur team, which is common on the streets, the biggest problem in daily operation is finding a venue and opponent.
It was also a great opportunity for them to play in the regular stadium of the college baseball club. Most of the time, these amateur teams play on an open field with a random pitcher's mound on the river beach.
So after receiving the invitation, the other party also sent a reply of approval.
"One last thing......"
Towards the end of the meeting, Fukushima made a new request to the players. I hope that everyone will use their respective channels to find some opponents to practice matches.
It doesn't matter how strong or weak it is, the Peace Academy can provide a venue here. If the opponent wants to play at their own venue, no problem.
"Our team also has its own buses to use. For example, if anyone in the old school needs to play practice games at their current school, we can go there. ”
Fukushima told everyone.
"Where did you come from, the former classmates?,Didn't everyone get promoted from the middle school of the Peace School Park......"
The person who interjected was Miyagi, a blonde-haired third-grader sitting in the corner, who had recently been pulled back to the training ground by Fukushima.
"No, there are people in the south who go to other schools in high school."
Fukushima retorted.
"What about outside the South? You mean you went to nine households in Fukui Prefecture? ”
Kunohe was also one of the main players on the Fukushima team in the third grade, and chose to study baseball at a school in Fukui Prefecture when he was in high school. It's not that the conditions of the other school's are good. It's really because there are so few teams participating in the local qualifiers. A strong team only needs to win four games to make it to Koshien.
And the distance to Fukui Prefecture is really not a toss from a non-baseball powerhouse like Peace School.
Although it is not a prestigious school, the teachers did not put any pressure on the members of the baseball club to achieve results. However, before the start of the summer conference, there are still final exams for the first semester to deal with. Therefore, opponents can only be found in the vicinity of the Tokyo area.
"There are also members of the ministry who were not in the Peace School Park when they were in middle school."
I don't know which team member whispered. Then the eyes of the whole room focused on Li Yuanrang.
"Don't look at me like that, unless you're looking for a ...... of the varsity table tennis team"
Li Yuanrang explained innocently.