Kōshū slept until the next morning. After washing up, he leisurely made his way to the field. If he skipped training for even one day, it felt like his bones would loosen up. Maybe everyone who plays sports is a masochist. Muttering to himself, he spotted a crowd gathered around the ballpark from afar, packed three layers deep. He promptly turned and headed straight for the Indoor Training Field.
"Hey, hey, isn't this Seido's 'Sleeping Beauty'? Why aren't you sleeping? You're up so early." Senior Isashiki's voice was as grating as ever.
Cold sweat trickled down Kōshū's back as he greeted the upperclassmen. "Why are all of you here, seniors?"
"There are too many people at the main field. Today was supposed to be focused on recovery training anyway, so we let them have it."
"Them? Do those two idiots happen to be there?" Kōshū meant Eijun, who loved showing off, and Furuya, Eijun's little follower.
"Who else could it be besides them?"
After the break, the most important matter was deciding the Koshien roster. There had been twenty players for the regional preliminaries, but the Koshien dugout only had room for eighteen, so two players would be cut from the regular roster.
"Number 1, Tanba."
"Number 7, Sakai."
"Number 10, Kawakami."
"Number 11, Kōshū."
"Number 12, Miyauchi."
By this point in the announcement, some people had already begun to swallow nervously.
"Number 13, Kadota."
"Number 14, Kusunoki."
"Number 15, Tanaka."
"Number 16, Furuya."
"Number 17... Kominato Haruichi." Endo, the backup center fielder, relaxed his shoulders. If this number had gone to another first-year, it meant the coach had begun considering the strength of the next generation, so there would be no place left for third-years afterward.
"Number 18, Sawamura Eijun. That concludes the roster heading to