On the first weekend of July, the opening ceremony of the "High School Baseball Players Gonnishi Tokyo and East Tokyo Tournament" was held at Jingu Stadium. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Half of the opening ceremony, which is expected to take one hour, will be used for the entrance ceremony to the participating schools.

At the top of the queue were the champions and runners-up of the previous year's West Tokyo and East Tokyo divisions.

More than 200 other colleges and universities followed.

As an ordinary participating team, the Peace School was placed in the middle of the process.

Li Yuanrang mixed in with the team of high school balls who did not see the beginning and the tail, and walked into the court through the passage under the stands of the left field of Jingu.

This place, which I had just visited as a spectator a few days ago, is now both familiar and unfamiliar.

Akio Yabe walked in front of the company holding the name plate of the Peace School High, and under the guidance of the staff of Takaya wearing white caps, he brought the team to the predetermined position and stood in column.

Li Yuan, who is half a head taller than his peers, looks left and right. Unlike previous professional baseball games, Jingu Stadium, which can accommodate nearly 40,000 people, only a few thousand spectators came today, many of whom were from the participating schools.

"There are so few audiences......"

Li Yuanrang muttered to himself.

"It's better not to talk during a meeting."

Thinking about it, the captain who is strict with himself and lenient with others, Ichihei Fukushima, is now a little stern in tone.

Although the Peace School has always been known for its liberal school spirit, it is still necessary to observe order on occasions like this in the general public.

After speeches by Korano, Asahi Shimbun, and guests from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the contestants took the oath of representative. The opening ceremony finally ended.

The other schools exited in order, while the School of Peace and its rivals, the combined team of the three schools, remained to prepare for the upcoming opener.

The Summer Games are all held on neutral courts, so there is no home or away venue, and which side of the rest area is used depends on the position on the table drawn. The first attack or the second attack is decided by the two teams' main players guessing the box.

Fukushima, who qualified for the opening match at the lottery meeting, also easily won the right to attack this time.

"I feel like I've been using all my luck lately in this kind of place......"

Fukushima, who returned to the rest area, said to his teammates.

"At least it's helpful for the game."

Akio Yabe will be on the bench in the lounge area as a substitute today. This was an ad hoc decision made by Fukushima and Yabe on the bus bound for Jingu.

The interview with Donald on Dongdu TV was broadcast in the early hours of this morning. Yabe got up early in the morning and watched the video.

It's full of exaggerated hypes about Donald's prowess.

Therefore, Fukushima and Yabe decided to plan and simply put Donald in the starting lineup today.

"Before the opponent finds out the truth, use Donald to pretend to be a strong blow to cover the four-stick Fukushima ......"

This is how Yabe explained his thoughts to Li Yuanrang.

At present, the team of the Peace Academy, in addition to the captain Fukushima Yiping, the most anticipated strength in the line is Li Yuanrang, who has just emerged.

If the opponent is unwilling to deal with these two, you can choose to dodge and match the ball based on bad balls, and even if you protect the opponent, the follow-up hitters will not have enough deterrence.

Now that Donald is ranked fifth, the opponent who has been blinded by false information may be afraid of him, and the chances of a head-to-head showdown with Fukushima Ichihei have increased.

"But did the other party really watch the show in the early morning? Not everyone has the habit of time-lapse video recording like you. ”

Li Yuanrang said to Yabe.

"If Donald plays well today, the opponents behind him will take the initiative to find the ...... to watch this episode"

Yabe is looking forward to Donald's performance today.

In previous team training, Donald exposed his weakness of not being good at playing the ball at all. But on the other hand, in the face of a straight ball with a speed of about 130 kilometers per hour, he can also hit long shots again and again.

Based on the analysis of the video footage of the match taken by Lee Wonrang. Kenta Ohtani, a pitcher on the three-school team, barely throws the ball. It's almost a tailor-made opponent for Donald.

……

Li Yuanrang put on a full set of catcher equipment and prepared to play. The teammates also gathered together.

"Do you want to make a circle or something?"

Someone in the team proposed.

"Isn't it already in a circle now? What slogans can you shout? ”

"Just shout 'Let's do it together'!"

Captain Fukushima has a serious face, but the slogan he proposes is unremarkable.

But in any case, the teammates still completed the round together side by side.

"Do you have anything to explain?"

Before going on the court, Li Yuanrang seized the last time to ask Yabe for advice. It was his first official race. It was also the first time he was a pitcher in charge of leading and distributing the ball in an official game. Naturally, there is a lot of tension.

"If the opponent hits, don't leave home plate rashly, and leave it to your teammates to deal with."

Lee has no experience in handling the ball, and Yabe just wants him not to make a mess.

"If you lose a few points, will you come up for me?"

"You'll squat all over the court, and the opponent may not be as strong as you think."

"They scored a dozen points in the last practice match."

"But they can't hold it."

Yabe carefully analyzed the video of the last game, and whether it is the individual ability of the pitchers or the team's defensive cooperation, the joint team cannot completely suppress the weak play line of ordinary public schools. Then in the face of the Peace Academy, I am afraid that it is even less of an opponent.

The game started promptly at half past two in the afternoon. The first to step into the strike zone was Kenta Ohtani, a pitcher from Gwangtoku High School.

Putting the pitcher at the first bat is not common even in college baseball.

Li Yuanrang still remembers what Yabe said when he analyzed the opponent's data before. Kenta Ohtani, who is a pitcher, has mediocre ability, but Kenta Ohtani, who is a hitter, must deal with it with his heart.

After careful consideration, Li Yuanrang made his first secret as a catcher. A straight ball with a low outside corner.

The pitcher Fukushima's ball was accurately dropped into the predetermined area, while the batter Ohtani stopped halfway through his swing.

"Even if you take the bat back, it's going to be a good shot, so why not give it a try."

As soon as the game began, Li Yuanrang planned to seize every opportunity to talk to the beater. This is one of the catcher tips that Yabe taught him.

Kenta Ohtani ignored his opponent's words.

I didn't just want to observe the ball. It's because the moment he hits the baton, he instinctively thinks that he will hit the infield that caused the outing.

Since the game had just begun, he decided to wait.

The second code played by Li Yuanrang was a slider with a high inside corner. This matching strategy is based on the basic matching theory taught to him by Yabe.

The speed of the ball alternates between fast and slow, and the angle is high and low inside and outside.

According to this theory, a straight ball with a low outside corner is perfectly followed by a slider with a high inside corner.

But Kazuhei Fukushima on the pitcher's mound shook his head at the code.