This summer’s Fukushima Games came to a dramatic end. Hirohide Yokoyama, director of Seiko Gakuin, who was watching the moment when he decided to participate in Koshien for the second year in a row, was squinting at the appearance of the players.
“It was a match where we made a lot of mistakes, but I was happier than being able to play in Koshien because all of our teammates covered for those mistakes.”
And Yokoyama commented on this year’s team as if he was deeply moved.
“I wonder if these kids would say, ‘Know how to find strength in a gale.’ They were like that.”
Yokoyama quoted a proverb used to describe a strong grass that can withstand strong winds—an attitude and determination to face difficulties.
Seiko Gakuin Nine, who overcame a four-point deficit in the Fukushima tournament finals and won the championship for the second time in a row. At Seiko Gakuin, it’s not uncommon to see players like Kyomi Yuasa (Hanshin), who originally entered third place and spent most of his high school baseball season as a manager due to back pain, but ended up on the bench at the Fukushima tournament as a pitcher
. . As for this year, they were a group of weeds who didn’t perform well in middle school but became stronger in high school.
* Outside the bench at Koshien
[Becoming a full-fledged pitcher after entering high school]
Kyogo Anzai, who won the ace number last summer, wasn’t even a pitcher in middle school. He is first in the rubber baseball club in Adachi, Fukushima. He says that he had a little bit of experience pitching in a selected team formed in the area, but when he participated in a practice meeting at Seiko Gakuin in the third year of junior high school, he threw a hardball for the first time.
Despite this, Anzai reveals the reason why he switched to pitching in high school.
“The way pitchers strike out in games is really cool, isn’t it? That’s why I wanted to try it in high school.”
For the leaders of Seiko Gakuin, the first evaluation of “Pitcher Anzai” was about “left-handed pitcher with strong pitch”. A man like that became an ace. Anzai is close to his hometown, and Ren Sasaki, an outfielder and cheerleader who has known him since elementary school, said.
2023-08-06 08:57:36
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