In the early morning of March 31, the sky was overcast, and the light rain flew in the air with the cold breeze.

Although there will be three rounds of battles today, the weather is bad, so the early Qingdao players gather at the hotel restaurant to chat while having breakfast.

"Will it be compared today?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen the superintendent yet, and Minister Ota hasn't come either."

"If we don't, then we can take another day off."

"I think it's going to be better than the weather forecast says the rain will stop soon."

"It's nice to have an extra day off, but if it drags on, school will start, right?"

"By the way, when it comes to the start of school, new students can enter the dormitory two days before the start of school, and I don't know what kind of new students will come this time."

"I've heard that Matsukata has several students who have signed up for our school."

"It seems that the four sticks from XJTLU have also reported to us here."

"Sure enough, because of the continuous entry into Koshien, this year's students are just as good as last year."

Everyone was chatting energetically, when suddenly the door of the restaurant was pushed open, and Superintendent Kataoka, who had been absent before, walked in.

Superintendent Kataoka counted the players staying in the restaurant, and basically all of them were there, so he said directly: "I just received a notice from Takano United that today's game will be held on time, starting at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. ”

“... Remember to be prepared. ”

"Yes!" Everyone has a voice.

Sensing that most of the people were still eating, Superintendent Kataoka decided not to bother them any longer, so he turned around and left with Minister Ota.

After Kataoka supervised their departure, the players who remained in the restaurant gradually broke the peace and began to chat with each other again.

However, because there was a game ahead, everyone began to speed up their eating, preparing to finish eating earlier, and doing some things they wanted to do while they still had time.

……

It was 10:50 a.m., and the hazy drizzle of the morning had stopped at some point, and the sky was beginning to become clearer, and it should not rain again.

Carrying backpacks, bags, or other items, the Seido players walked onto the school bus and drove to Hanshin Koshien Stadium for today's three-round match against Kansai.

Arriving at Koshien Stadium in less than 20 minutes, the Seido crowd walked to the athletes' tunnel with the cheers of their supporters.

……

At 11:59 a.m., the Seichi and Kansai players, who were lined up in front of their respective rest areas, rushed to home plate together with the order of the chief judge.

"Please advise!"

Players from both sides lined up on one side of the home plate, taking off their hats and bowing along with the base judges.

"Please advise!!"

After that, the Qingdao players turned around and withdrew from the field and returned to the rest area on the third base side behind them, leaving only the nine players who were the starters and went to their own positions.

"Buzz-buzz-buzz..."

At 12:01 p.m., when the air defense siren sounded over the court, Kansai ace Ikuya Kawabe looked at the bats held high in the hitting area, turned his head to look at his green hitter, he took a deep breath and raised his right hand, raised his left foot and stepped forward, and swung his right hand forward with the forward leaning of his body of gravity.

"Whew!"

The pitcher's palm ball drops forward along the edge line at 120 km/h and is caught by the hand's open glove behind the high outside corner.

"Bang!"

“Strike.“

Before the air raid sirens ended, Ikuru Kawabe threw his second ball to home plate, still with a palm ball in the outside corner.

"Ping!".

The palm ball that moved longitudinally to the middle of the outer corner with a ball speed of 111km/h hit the bottom with a swing of the bat, and flew out to the right.

"Out of bounds!" The battered player swung a baseball that flew past and landed in the audience on the first base, forcing the batter into a second-best position.