"So comfortable! Taking a bath is really comfortable!" After washing his body, Sendou entered the hot spring as he wished.
And it was a milk bath...
In the words of the Sendou, this can make the skin whiter, although who knows if it actually works.
"Really!"
"By the way! Tetsu-san usually takes a bath very early!"
"I'm used to it! The supervision always comes so late! I encountered it once when I was in first grade, and I didn't dare to move at all, I almost got cooked!"
After that, it became a habit! "The gossip-loving philosopher didn't even spare his own gossip.
"I see! That's definitely the time the Sunglasses Uncle likes to go!"
"Speaking of which, you're not afraid of being supervised! You even often go to take a bath with the supervisor late at night."
Well, maybe occasionally!
Sometimes chatting with that Sunglasses Uncle is quite fun!
"What should we talk about?"
"Baseball! Wasn't that Sunglasses Uncle a baseball idiot when he was still playing?"
So we mostly talked about baseball!
"Following the flow! Tactics! Things like that! While I quite like tactical routines, I'm not interested in researching new Signals or anything like that."
"The supervisor also likes to talk to you about these things!"
"Well! Usually, only Rei-chan can offer one or two suggestions, but she's not good at tactical arrangements."
So you've been holding it in for a long time? Probably!
"You're the only one who would dare to joke about supervision!"
For some reason, at that moment, Sendou suddenly had the thought that if Coach Kataoka suddenly came in and called out,
What would my joke be like?
" Captain Tetsu will probably be completely stiff!" Sendou thought to himself.
My mood improved as a result.
"Not bad expression!" Captain Tetsu said, seeing Sendou's smiling face.
"I've thought of something interesting! What do you think would happen if the supervisor suddenly walked in at this moment?" Saying this, Sendou took a sip of his cola!
"This isn't funny at all!" Captain Tetsu said with a hint of helplessness.
"What's not funny!" Coach Kataoka suddenly walked in at that moment!
"Cough!" Sendou choked instantly!
That's just holy crap!
"Supervisor!" Captain Tetsu quickly greeted.
"Why are we suddenly talking about me? Sendou!"
"Are you talking badly about me behind my back again?"
"How could that be? And why did you say 'again'?"
"I've never said a bad word about you!" This was something Sendou had never actually used before.
"Didn't you talk to Teacher Takashima about the strengths and weaknesses of my vocational education before?"
"That wasn't saying anything bad about you!" Sendou quickly explained.
"I know, and to be honest, I appreciate your opinion!"
I was just joking!
"Forehead...!"
Okay! After chatting with Sendou a few times and spending a lot of time together, even Coach Kataoka has become a bit mischievous.
Captain Tetsu looked at the two of them with a bit of confusion, as if he didn't recognize the coach.
"Yamete yo! (Don't do this!)"
That would scare people to death!
"I need to talk to Yuuki! Why don't you go somewhere else?"
"Oh! That's exactly what I wanted to try – Red Wine Bath!"
Oh, right! The Sunglasses Uncle!
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
"The old man from the Nakanishi schools just called!"
He said he knew someone nearby who was a coach at a private junior high school, and they had already given him permission to lend us the court and facilities.
"Really? Then I really am benefiting from your help!"
Thank you!
Coach Kataoka naturally knew how good this was; it was safe to say that apart from the local national team, virtually no other team could find a stadium for their daily defensive practice.
"No need to thank me! Both you and that old man want us to win!"
"Well then! I'm off!" With that, Sendou vanished in a flash.
"Really!" Coach Kataoka muttered, then turned to Captain Tetsu.
Captain Tetsu's body stiffened slightly; it was too close.
Normally, we don't shy away from talking about Sendou. For example, on the eve of the battle with Inajitsu, we didn't even hide our true feelings from Sendou. But this matter is related to Sendou, though it's not confirmed yet.
Since only two people can take a milk bath, it was a natural way to get Sendou away.
After leaving, Sendou was quite carefree, wandering around to different hot springs. After trying Red Wine Bath, he went to an open-air bath to look at the stars.
On August 7th, a grand opening ceremony was held at Koshien Stadium.
When Seidou High School entered, the announcement was as follows:
"After a six-year hiatus, we are heading to Koshien with the ambition of reviving our prestigious school and dominating the nation."
Baseball Kingdom magazine praised their batting lineup as the best in the country.
While we don't know if it's true or not, it's definitely something to look forward to!
Then last year's champions returned the banner. Luckily, they also made it to Koshien this year; otherwise, according to the rules, only the captain could return the banner, which would have been a bit of a blow to their morale.
In this sweltering heat, having teams enter one by one, plus the oaths and such, is truly unbearable.
"It's so hot!" Furuya fainted again and collapsed onto Sawamura once more.
" Furuya! You bastard, you're here again! Stand still!" Sawamura pushed him hard.
Xiaochun, who was behind, immediately came over to lend a hand.
Sendou then put his head on Miyuki's back!
"Hey! What's wrong?"
"You didn't get heatstroke too, did you?" Miyuki felt the weight behind him and was both worried and puzzled.
"No! It's just too hot, so I'm taking a break!"
"Huh!" Miyuki was completely dumbfounded. This was too shameless!
"When I get back, I'm going to drink two bottles, no! Three bottles of iced cola!" Sendou was feeling utterly hopeless from the sun.
"You weren't like this during your matches!"
It looks like it's already burned out.
"Standing here is so boring! That's why it feels even hotter."
Miyuki never dreamed that this would be the reason.
Isn't this just about being lazy whenever you can?
"Then you should get some rest! Tonight..."
"No!"
"I haven't said it yet!"
"There's no need to say anything."
"You're using my back as a pillow right now, aren't you?" Miyuki realized that he was just a pillow after all.
"Who told you to stand in front of me?"
"You...!"
Shut up! You two are making so much noise!
"This is the opening ceremony!" said the Isashiki-senpai in front of him, speechless.
The third-grade students are all incredibly energetic.
After all, it's their dream! It's a miracle they didn't cry.
After the opening ceremony, Sawamura and Koharu took Furuya away.
Senior Chris from Seidou, stayed behind with two other people to record the afternoon's matches.
This is a prestigious family; Senior Chris's recent work has been quite impressive.
The week before, after the Drawing Lots results were announced, Senior Chris and Sendou formed a pitcher-catch pair and began studying their opponents in this group.
Although the recordings mainly consist of the finals and Semifinals, it is still a huge workload. In addition, recordings from other schools and even recordings from previous years were also brought over, since the group stage can only go up to the quarterfinals, and after the quarterfinals, another Drawing Lots will be held.
The other groups will have to wait until the second round is over before they can start studying the data and conduct detailed analysis after the top eight groups are determined.
This is how a prestigious family operates: never underestimate any opponent and make all the necessary preparations.
Furthermore, Seidou has data on almost all the Koshien teams from previous years, making it easy to keep up with the times, whether it's tactics or changes in the opponents' personnel.
Although in previous years they were all removed as trash because they didn't make it to Koshien.
However, this habit actually helped Senior Chris's intelligence team this year.
Because there are only a few video recordings, it's impossible to thoroughly investigate the players on their bench.
This is the case nationwide, and it's also the case during regional competitions. Otherwise, where would Senior Chris's notebook have gotten its information?
It's all thanks to the OBs who never made it to the bench in previous years.
After all, Coach Kataoka doesn't have the same influence Coach Sakaki, and there are plenty of people who want to record videos.
Meanwhile, the other nearly one hundred contestants from Seidou took a bus to Mishima Junior High School, which was recommended by Coach Nakanishi Mishima Middle School.
Naturally, everything revolves around Koshien, with the main players training and others providing support.
However, the practice balls are provided by Seidou themselves.
The junior high school's facilities are definitely not as big as those of the senior high school, not to mention that Seidou is a two-sided court while this is only a single-sided one. After all, this is not a prestigious school; otherwise, some prestigious junior high schools would have more than a hundred students.
Now, Seidou is finally settled.
After returning home, Sendou and the other first-year students' impression of Koshien was that the stadium was big and there were a lot of people!
Of course, the grandeur of such a large stage is also impressive.
In the following days, Seidou will repeat similar training: batting lineup practice, defense, and free hitting.
In their first match against Ichizen Yokohama Kohoku Academy, Seidou fielded their main players.
However, before the competition started, Senior Chris said that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Hengxue would definitely advance, while Ichizen was just an ordinary team that had come up from an ordinary region and was of average strength.
They don't have the potential to be a dark horse, a conclusion reached by Senior Chris after fast-forwarding through their two Regional Preliminaries matches.
If they are lucky enough to win, Seidou will be even happier.
As it turned out, Senior Chris's prediction was correct, and Yokohama Kohoku Academy advanced smoothly with a score of 5 to 2.
"How should I put it? This team is still the same as before, with no obvious improvement!"
"That substitute pitcher's growth is truly unexpected!" Sendou said after watching the game.
"Today, we're just having our ace finish off the game, probably to conserve his energy for dealing with us!"
His fastballs are a bit faster, averaging around 140 kilometers per hour, so he's definitely Fastball player, but his ball control is still the same as always! Miyuki and Sendou chimed in.
"Is he/she our type?"
The team's offense isn't particularly strong, but their defense is decent!
"Hmm! But we can't be careless! Don't forget! They're the team that beat us in the spring!"
"How could we forget? They owe us tenfold!"
"I didn't expect you to actually care about that match."
"No!
However, not caring doesn't mean we won't make them pay it back!
Debts must eventually be repaid.
"Let them go home crying the day after tomorrow!"
"Ah!"
Nobody wants to lose here. That's how the single-elimination format works—it's either you or me who's going to cry, so of course, we'll make others cry.
That night, in a lobby of the hotel.
"Based on today's match and the local qualifiers, the semi-finals, and the finals..."
Their batting lineup hasn't improved significantly, but the coordination between runners and batters is much better than in the Kanto Tournament.
On the pitching side, ace Ino,
The average speed reached 140 kilometers per hour, and the ball control decreased slightly, but it was still barely able to reach the level of Four-Quadrant.
The quality of his Slider and curveball has also improved, which will make his deciding Forkball even more difficult to hit.
Against a pitcher with a wide variety of Changeup, it's best to focus on wearing down the opponent's stamina and observing their Ball Trajectory in the first round.
However, we can leverage the explosiveness of our Center Batting Lineup to seize the lead.
Senior Chris gave a brief overview of his analysis and also provided each person with detailed information about the players.
" Kuramochi, the match the day after tomorrow."
"Hi!"
" Kuramochi, you still need to find a way to get to base, and then actively aim for the next base!"
"Hi!"
"The same goes for others. Never miss an easy shot, and don't try to hit Hanging Ball or a tricky Ball Trajectory."
The first round should be mainly about probing, but don't forget to maintain an offensive mindset!
We must carry on our baseball legacy!
"Hi!"
" The Sendou!"
"Huh?" This was the first time Coach Kataoka had called his name since the Summer Preliminaries began.
"Apart from the easy Ball Trajectory, try to entangle them with balls from outside the bounds as much as possible."
Only if you can do that, you won't be easily eliminated no matter what kind of Ball Trajectory!
The next batter will send you home!
"Learn!"
Coach Kataoka is right. Even Onii-san sometimes gets eliminated due to out-of-bounds tactics. Only Sendou, who is hard to mess up even with bad balls, can do that.
"Once we establish a lead in the first round of the competition, we need to keep putting pressure on them on both offense and defense."
When they show a weakness, crush them in one fell swoop.
"The first striker the day after tomorrow is Furuya! You go!"
"I understand!" Furuya replied in a strong voice, instantly exuding an aura of power.
Tanba looked at Furuya and lowered his head slightly. After all, it was an important first battle, and Tanba, as the ace, was still a little disappointed.
Sawamura's face was filled with shock, then resentment, and then... his eyes turned cat-like.
" Tanba!"
"Hi!"
" Kawakami! And Sawamura! You two need to be prepared too!"
This summer, we're going to fight with a relay-style approach!
Furthermore, the Koshien tournament schedule is too packed, so I might change the pitcher earlier to keep you all in good physical condition until the last game!
Do you understand?
"Hi!!!"
Coach Kataoka was not unfounded.
The teams playing on the final day of the third round of Koshien all played one match per day.
In the original story, Inajitsu took turns pitching. In the round of 16, against Nishibang, Narumiya a complete game. The next day was the Number 19, and he took to the mound again in the quarterfinals, although it is unknown how many innings he pitched.
Then, in the Second Match Semifinals the 20th, when he faced Ikuei in the quarterfinals, he began to show signs of fatigue, losing two points right from the start. He pitched seven innings in that match, and it wasn't until the Eighth Inning that Iguchi substituted him out.
He played for three consecutive days, and then immediately faced off against Kyoma 14-game series. It's fair to say he was already exhausted before the finals.
With a proper combination of four pitchers, it is possible to maintain peak physical performance at the same time.
I wrote 8,000 words that day, and I felt like I was going to die.
Especially during the day, there are a lot of things to do at home.
I'm going out to sleep tomorrow.
Finally, I'm asking for your votes.