After winning the preliminary round, the next game was Cuba, and Kōshū took a complete break. This game allowed the Japanese team, a group of children from capitalist countries, to see what "Red Lightning" is. The red color refers to socialism.
Cuba's children have slightly worse equipment, and their hobbies are different——
"Hey, he doesn't wear batting gloves." I saw the batter on Batter's Box holding the bat between his legs, spitting twice and rubbing his hands before picking up the bat again to hit. The other Cuba players were wearing batting gloves.
"Uh..." Everyone's hands suddenly started to itch.
"The conditions are so difficult and you still come by plane. Can you be reimbursed?"
"Probably?"
Such a team beat the proud Japanese team 2:5. Everyone originally thought that baseball, as the national sport of Japan, is probably the country that loves baseball the most in the world. Unexpectedly, in distant South America, children from the third world can play better than them.
'Sure enough, baseball is just a game that can be played with a ball and a bat. China has not popularized it. It is just that China was colonized for a short time. This can be considered a blessing. ' In fact, the strong baseball atmosphere in Japan, South Korea, and Latin American countries has a lot to do with their long-term colonization or influence by the West.
"Hey - is that person taking the game ball?" A player who was lagging behind pointed to the opposite side.
Hayakawa quickly pressed down his hand. "It's probably as a souvenir. Let's leave quickly."
Fortunately, he was not discovered by the opponent. There was a language barrier between the two parties. It would be bad if there was a conflict. Moreover, whether the game ball can be taken is relatively ambiguous. Many times, players in the game will give the ball to the spectators outside the court.
Their third game was Russia. Kōshū's private message had received news from Chinese Team players, saying that Russia had scored 19 points, while Chinese Team only lost 1 point. They were advised not to let go of such a good scoring team like Russia.
In this match, the coaches could only find very few images of the Russian team members, making it difficult to analyze effectively, so that night they watched the match between Chinese Team and the Russian team.
"So we only played 5 games, right?" The scores are already so disparate, right?..
After watching the game, Coach Ninomiya gave everyone some popular science. The sport of baseball may have first appeared in Russia more than 400 years ago. It was used by soldiers to keep fit. However, the most popular ball game in Russia now is not baseball, and they do not often participate in U15 events.
"So I won't be starting tomorrow." On the way back to the house, Kōshū complained to Hayakawa. As the main catcher, Hayakawa was always there.
"Don't worry, there will definitely be a time for you to play in the future."
On the third day, it was 6:30 in the afternoon, and the game against Russia officially started. Kōshū watched from the side as the score moved toward double digits. By the time the game was over, Russia had lost a full 20 points, but had not scored a single point.
Seeing those Russians who are generally taller than Japanese players First Year of High School, but clumsy as bears in this sport, Kōshū couldn't help but sigh, "Sure enough, good physical fitness may not mean you can play baseball well."
As the person who develops before everyone else, he is likely to take the lead in the early stages. However, in the later stage, when others have reached the development stage, he has begun to enter the growth plateau period, and the gap in physical fitness between him and others will become smaller and smaller. How to use the opportunity during this period to turn comparative advantage into absolute advantage is a question Kōshū is thinking about.
At the beginning of the fourth game, the venue changed to Taichung Baseball Field. The opponent was Venezuela, who is also from South America. This time it was Kōshū who was the main pitcher.
"I'm finally satisfied. I said the coach would let you play."
"Look, they painted that thing right now."
"Did the professional baseball player draw Eye Black? Why are they white?"
"Are you stupid? If it were Eye Black, there would be no need to draw it at all."
"That catcher looks so oriental. What's that word? Beautiful features and beautiful eyes?"
At the beginning of the game, the Japanese team attacked first. I wonder if the pitching skills of the two countries are not very similar. Kōshū Look at the pitcher. After each pitch, his body is unstable and he must use his hands to support it to prevent him from falling to the ground.
"Is pitching like that good for your health?" Kōshū complained to Hayakawa, but got no reply from Hayakawa. The first pitch was struck out, and he was ready to pitch as the third pitch.
When the Japanese team's second bat got off to a bad start, they took a risk and chose Sacrifice Bunt. The ball spot was in front of Pitcher's Mound, but it was closer to the catcher, but the pitcher chose Venezuela. I played Pitcher's Mound myself. Before the collision, the catcher could only squat aside to avoid. Such a large obstacle also stopped the pitcher's movement of picking up the ball. This little effort was enough to hit On Base twice.
"Oh——" Everyone in the Japanese team became happy. Mistakes can not only boost the momentum of the attacking side, but also affect the mood of the defensive side. Look at Venezuela, how there is a quarrel over the shooting.
The South Americans spoke loudly and moved widely. They hunched their shoulders, pointed at each other with their palms like palms, and murmured in their mouths.
"Are you arguing? It's so loud." Everyone on the Japanese team couldn't help but talk about it.
But he saw the catcher tilted his head, lowered his arm, and returned to home plate. "There was no quarrel. He looked so fierce."
"Maybe it's the way people over there speak."
The three-bat Hayakawa took advantage of the opponent's pitcher's unstable mood and hit a series of hits. The four-bat hit a long hit to the left field, returning two runs.
In the end, the Japanese team scored 3 points in the first game. Kōshū still played steadily in the second half of the game. Although it was a little uncomfortable at the beginning, it still did not lose points in the end.
"Those people are quite powerful..." Kōshū said to Hayakawa a little unwillingly after he came off the field.
"They are so close to the United States, and many people play there. Of course they will be good, but it is obvious that their golf skills are not meticulous and they are still a little worse than us."
Kōshū was convinced. He was an eight-bat player and was the first to come on the court in the second inning. However, for the first time he faced a ball thrown from a weird posture and only hit an outfield fly.
At the beginning of the second game, the two teams began to adapt to each other, and the game was a bit difficult to separate. However, the Japanese team had a 3-point advantage at the beginning, and then scored 2 more points, ending the fourth game with a score of 5:1.
"In the end, I still lost a point."
"Not bad, your winning rate is now 100%, and you have a chance to compete for Win Rate King in this competition."
This talkative teammate was immediately suppressed by everyone, "Don't put too much pressure on the pitcher. The ranking of the game is according to Score Difference Ratio. The pitcher's runs only account for half, and the other half is the important half."
"Okay, okay."
After the game, everyone returned to the hotel in a polite manner and watched the video of tomorrow's Australia team. The original idea of going for a walk around to relax after the game did not come true at all. Instead, Coach Ninomiya was obsessed with watching.
"Let's wait until the preliminaries are over. I should be able to apply for a few hours to go out during the day off." Under everyone's pressure, Hayakawa, as the captain, promised to lobby the coach.
As a result, the next day, they lost to the Australia team with a score of 9:10. "Sure enough, the outcome of the baseball game is uncertain...Chinese Team defeated Australia 8:4 yesterday. We defeated Chinese Team 12:0 on the first day. Logically we should beat the Australia team..."
At the end of the preliminaries, the Japanese team has 3 wins and 2 losses. Score Difference Ratio is 3, ranking second within Team A, trailing Cuba by 1.4 points.
Fortunately, after losing the game, Coach Ninomiya still approved everyone to go out. As everyone's guide, Kōshū had to do two hours of homework after the game to prepare the route and backup plan before setting off.
Time was tight, so we all walked around downtown Taichung. It was quite convenient to have Kōshū, a person who could speak Chinese. Of course, the only one who was unhappy was Kōshū himself. A total of 8 people came out. He also had to assist Hayakawa and the coach to prevent accidents.
I checked my results and found that I only passed three of the four subjects. I will continue to take the exam next year...