The summer high school baseball season is just around the corner. Looking at the winners of the Fukushima tournament over the past 10 years, the strength of the “champion Seiko Gakuin” stands out. Will they be the absolute champion, or will someone come along to take their place? The matchup that will determine the fate of 2024 has been decided.

62 teams from 68 schools will participate in the Fukushima High School Baseball Summer Tournament, which begins on July 12. The draw to decide the fate of the teams was held in Sukagawa City.
The first seed, Seiko Gakuin, is aiming for its third consecutive victory. In the same block is the strong Nihon University Tohoku, which is aiming for its first appearance at Koshien in three years.
Seikou Gakuin captain Sato Raten said, “It doesn’t matter who the opponent is, but rather what attitude we have and how we approach the game. So we’re going to put our heart into that aspect once again.”

The second seed, Gakuho Ishikawa, which participated in the Spring Senbatsu, is attracting attention. They will be taking on the frustration of their walk-off loss to Seiko Gakuin in the 2023 finals this summer.
Gakuho Ishikawa High School captain, Koyake Yoshinao, said, “Playing against the number one team in Japan (at the Spring Tournament) was a great learning experience for us, and we’ve all been thinking about how we can improve as a team, so we really want to win this summer and go to Koshien again.”

The third seed, Kounan, lost in the finals in 2021 and 2022. They are aiming for their first victory in 18 years since 2006.

Fourth seed Iwaki’s block will include Aizu Kitamine, which made it to the top four last summer, so a close battle is expected.

“Tohoku International University Shohei” is aiming to be the first 5th seed to participate in Koshien. They will face “Fukushima” in the first game.

The sixth seed “Soma”, who played a close match against Seiko Gakuin in the spring prefectural tournament, is expected to have a heated first match against “Haramachi”, also from the Soso district.

The seventh seed, “Tamura”, will face the combined team of “Fukushima Kita and Date” in the first match. For the second year in a row, they will draw the player’s oath and kick off the tournament.
Captain Tamura/Kokubu Hiroya said, “I was most surprised, but as this is an athlete’s oath, I would like to take it with the hopes of all the high schools in Fukushima Prefecture on my mind.”

The last block is the 8th seed “Fukushima Commercial High School”. It is expected to be a close race with strong prefectural high schools such as “Odaka Industrial Technology” and “Iwaki Yumoto”.

The Fukushima Summer High School Baseball Tournament will kick off on July 12th with the main stadium being the Prefectural Azuma Baseball Stadium in Fukushima City, and the final will be held on the 28th.

The players’ expressions after the matchup was decided showed an air of “The game has already started!” The team that wins the Fukushima tournament will participate in the national tournament that will begin on August 7th at Koshien Stadium.
As for this national tournament, a “two-part system” will be introduced from 2024, with matches being held in the morning and evening to avoid the hottest times of the day as a measure to prevent heatstroke.
I hope the players will be in top condition and put up a passionate fight.

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