"You've still got a long way to go!
Even if you can't hit it over the fence net, you should at least hit a few more Home Runs!"
"Alright, keep practicing!
I was just joking!" Seeing how badly everyone had been stunned by his joke, Sendou said with a smile.
"That wasn't funny at all!!
Especially at a time like this!!" Senior Kuramochi loudly retorted.
"Sorry, sorry!" Sendou raised a hand in front of him and made an embarrassed, fluttering gesture of apology.
Still, only Miyuki, Kuramochi, and a few others chatted with Sendou. Everyone else continued practicing diligently.
They were all players desperate to get on the field!
"The seniors... have an incredible presence!" Toujou-senpai sighed as he watched the seniors practicing earnestly and methodically.
"Yeah!
Yakushi lost that badly!
We might run into Inajitsu in this tournament too!
...They really are fired up!" Kanemaru nodded in agreement. When he saw Higasa, the senior competing with him for third baseman, he could no longer stay calm.
Only then did he remember that although he had been starting recently, his position was far from secure. The two of them were competing for the same spot.
"But... the biggest reason the team feels this tense isn't Inajitsu's match...
It's because the current Spring Tournament roster, just like the Selection Tournament roster, only has eighteen players!
Unlike the Selection Tournament, though, twenty players can make the bench for the Spring Tournament!
There are clearly two more spots available on the bench roster...
Yet the coach hasn't filled them!!
The players removed after the Selection Tournament, as well as the Third Years who only have this final year left, should be desperate for those two spots!
But he deliberately left them open!!
Anyone should understand why...
How did Sendou make the Spring