Christmas (Part 1)

"Got a little of my health back!!" Sendou said weakly when he heard the others' praise.

"Ha ha ha! No wonder he's the man I had my eye on!!" The embarrassed Sawamura came back to life and laughed loudly.

After sunset, the upperclassmen, assistant coaches, and managers worked together to clean up.

Meanwhile, just like yesterday, the players began another hellish round of weighted running, followed by more pre-dinner practice.

"Keep your backs straight!!"

"Heads up!!"

"Sendou! Don't walk—run!!!"

The training grounds rang with all kinds of scolding from Coach Kataoka!

That's right! Sendou, who had just recovered a little, was down again...

Dinner felt a little better than yesterday overall. Only Sendou and Furuya looked half-dead and unable to stomach their food.

Thankfully, perhaps knowing how painful eating was for the players, they were given quite a long time for dinner.

The post-dinner training changed from yesterday as well, with everyone split into groups according to Coach Ochiai's judgment.

Tojo, Kanemaru, Yamaguchi, Aso, Takatsu, and the others who needed to build their bodies were all tossed into the gym to lift weights.

Maezono and the other batters whose selling point was Long Hits went outside for Long Hit practice.

Those like Kuramochi, who needed to work on getting hits, went to the Indoor Practice Field to hit into the Ball Net!

Sendou was assigned to practice Long Hits outside...

But he was a special case. According to Coach Ochiai, he should have been in the gym lifting weights.

However, there was no way that guy, who had already been wrung dry, could complete that kind of weighted training, so he could only be sent outside to practice Long Hits...

At least that way, he could still endure it through sheer willpower...

And just as Coach Ochiai had expected, Sendou,