On the afternoon of the day before the Golden Week holiday, Coach Kataoka took pity on them and canceled the original training plan, letting everyone go back early to pack their things, to gather again tomorrow morning.
After morning practice and breakfast tomorrow, they would head to Chiba, their first destination for the expedition.
There, Seido had scheduled two practice games. Although the opponents had not made it into the Kanto Tournament, they were all very famous strong teams in the area.
As the Seido High School Baseball Team, adjusting the team's practice opponents was perfectly suitable.
"After this expedition, it should be time to decide the Ace and the jersey numbers for players in each position, right?"
Someone in the team was whispering about this matter.
This was basically a semi-open secret of the Seido High School Baseball Team.
The Kanto Tournament was about to start, and the roster would be announced soon.
After Golden Week ended and eight practice games were played, this matter could not be delayed any longer.
Actually, this matter hadn't caused much of a stir originally, as the Spring Tournament had just ended, and the Seido High School Baseball Team had successfully gone all the way in the Spring Tournament, winning this year's first championship.
Although the championship's prestige was a little low, something was better than nothing.
Not to mention, this Spring Tournament also received strong support from Tokyo Television.
For the Kanto Tournament, they could completely continue to use the previous lineup.
But with the completion of the newcomer welcoming game, the originally very stable main lineup saw many variables.
First, Zhang Han performed so outstandingly that it was no longer just a threat to Ace Tanba; Zhang Han's pitching strength should surpass Tanba's.
There were quite a few people in the team who held this idea, so the final choice for the Ace became an unknown.
Also.
Two new players had just been promoted from the freshmen, and Coach Kataoka and the coaches probably didn't intend to give up on the newly promoted players in the short term.
In this way, the two of them would likely occupy two spots.
The First string players of the Seido High School Baseball Team were already plentiful, and now with two promotions, two people would have to be removed from the original lineup.
This was also a troublesome matter.
The reason why the atmosphere in the First string team is so tense right now is largely due to this.
Especially for the third-year players, they had come this far with great difficulty and did not want to be replaced at this time.
Facing the upcoming expedition, each of them was filled with high morale.
Of course, there are always exceptions; there are naturally people in the First string who don't have to worry about their positions, such as Zhang Han.
With the two newcomers, the Seido High School Baseball Team's First string roster has reached a total of twenty-two players.
And that's not all.
Coach Ochiai, who is in charge of coaching the freshmen and the second team, promised everyone face-to-face that before the Summer Tournament, other players would get at least one more chance to be promoted.
As for who would get these promotion spots?
That would depend on their performance during this period, especially in practice games.
Although Coach Ochiai's promise was grand and enticing, everyone knew in their hearts that this opportunity belonged only to the players who were already in the First string or second team.
If one hadn't yet made it into the second team, then, unfortunately, the last chance would not fall to him.
During the upcoming Golden Week, while other students in the school were on holiday, the baseball team players were ready for battle.
The First string players would board the team bus and travel to four different prefectures to play eight practice games.
Nowadays, the gap between prestigious teams and ordinary teams is growing larger and larger.
There are two particularly important reasons for this.
One aspect is the special admissions system.
Looking at how Seido High School Baseball Team approached Zhang Han, one can basically see the huge difference in student recruitment between ordinary schools and prestigious schools.
The other aspect is capital and resources.
The training facilities of prestigious high schools themselves are no worse than those of professional baseball teams.
How can schools whose baseball teams don't even have pitching machines compete?
The gap in resources is also very large; take this Golden Week, for example, facing the upcoming Kanto Tournament, Seido High School Baseball Team will travel to the regions participating in the Kanto Tournament to play against the strong teams in those regions.
Although these teams are also eliminated, who can know the style of these strong teams in their respective regions better than the teams from the same region?
The results of the practice games can also serve as a reference for the Kanto Tournament, a bit like a mock exam.
But not every school has the qualification to conduct such mock exams; this requires capital support and the school's own resources.
Seido High School has reached the pinnacle in this regard.
After a morning's bus ride, the teammates arrived in Chiba in the afternoon, had a simple lunch, and a long-prepared practice game arrived as scheduled.
Zhang Han, as a key player, started the game.
He played as the Fourth batter for the team.
The teammates in the dugout were whispering.
"Do you guys feel like Han-san looks particularly scary today?"
"You feel that way too? I thought it was just my imagination; on the bus, I didn't even dare to say a word to him."
"I wonder if Han-san ran into something?"
"If you have the guts, go ask him; I'm not going to, anyway."
"As if I would dare? Am I that reckless?"
Most of the teammates felt that today's Zhang Han looked somewhat different from usual.
But what exactly was different? They couldn't say.
In short, it was just different!
"Today's opponent is probably going to have a bad time."
From the start of the game, Seido High School Baseball Team displayed an extraordinary offensive capability.
The pitcher from Chiba already had a damp forehead.
He felt so much pressure!
The guy who was the First Batter was incredibly fast, almost inhuman; before they could react, he had already scurried to First Base.
Actually, the ball he hit wasn't that unhittable. But combined with his speed, it immediately became an unanswerable hit.
And that wasn't all; when the pitcher threw the first pitch, Kuramochi stole Second Base, like a hunting leopard, scurrying straight to Second Base.
No outs, runner on Second Base.
Seido High School Baseball Team, seemingly still not satisfied, even had the second batter bunt to advance the runner at this point.
With that runner's speed, did it make a difference if he was on Second Base or Third Base?
At first, the Chiba players truly didn't understand what the Seido High School Baseball Team players were trying to do.
Of course, they soon found out.
The runner was never aiming for Third Base; he had already started running early.
When the ball was thrown to First Base, he planned to round Third Base and go directly to home plate.
Fortunately, the Chiba players weren't slacking either; they threw the ball back a step ahead, and the opponent could only dejectedly retreat to Third Base.
One out, runner on Third Base.
Facing a situation where even a single hit, or a high fly ball or ground ball, could lead to a run.
The Chiba pitcher was a bit flustered.
He gritted his back teeth, preparing to strike out the opponent with a breaking ball on the corners.
He didn't expect that the guy, who wasn't tall and didn't look muscular, had monstrously good judgment in pitch selection.
Even pitches that were slightly outside the strike zone, he didn't swing at.
As a result, after a seven-pitch battle, the opponent was walked to First Base.
So far, the pitcher had thrown eleven pitches.
In terms of pitch count alone, it wasn't that many.
However, in the process of facing Seido High School Baseball Team, the pitcher felt a terrifying pressure, like facing a towering mountain.
Every player from Seido High School Baseball Team seemed extraordinarily tall and monstrous with fangs in his eyes.
They all wore chilling smiles, ready to devour him whole at any moment.
"This feeling is truly unnerving! Is this the pressure brought by the nationally top-tier powerhouse, Seido High School Baseball Team?"
The Chiba pitcher continuously built up his psychological fortitude.
In the upcoming confrontation with Zhang Han, he did not choose to walk him just because there was still an open base.
Instead, he chose a head-on confrontation.
"No matter how strong they appear, they are high school students of sixteen or seventeen years old, just like us. There's no reason we should lose…"
The pitcher threw his full power into the first pitch he threw to Zhang Han.
His catcher's eyes lit up when he saw this pitch.
Very good! Well done!
Facing the terrifying pressure from Seido High School Baseball Team's relentless offense, his catcher didn't back down, and pitched in his best state.
The speed of this Fastball must have exceeded 140 kilometers per hour…
And it was in such a tricky location again.
Frankly speaking, this was a very high-level pitch.
In the dugout of Seido High School Baseball Team, Miyuki, who was changing equipment and preparing for hitting, his pupils suddenly widened.
What did he see?
The Chiba pitcher, facing Zhang Han, actually used an inside Fastball for the first pitch?
Had the opponent never watched their Seido High School Baseball Team's game footage before?
How dare they?
At the batter's box, Zhang Han lifted his foot and took a step forward.
He originally hit with a fixed stance, but when he saw the opponent use a Fastball, he pulled his front foot back and stepped out again.
On one hand, he readjusted his hitting stance, and on the other hand, he also used the forward momentum to increase the power of his swing.
"Buzz~"
The Chiba catcher felt a blur in front of his eyes.
Then he saw that as the bat was about to enter the strike zone, a black shadow suddenly appeared in front of it.
Then…
"Ping!"
The bat hit the center of the ball squarely, sending it flying out with solid contact.
The white ball soared into the sky, directly clearing the protective netting and flying an unknown distance.
"Three-run, Homerun!!!"
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