The Ehime Tournament finals were held on July 30th, and the 49 representative schools were selected for the Summer National High School Baseball Championship. From August 2nd, each participating team actually started practicing at Hanshin Koshien Stadium. The six schools participating from the Kinki region also got a feel for Koshien Stadium.

Each school had 20 minutes to practice at Koshien. Although some schools still had members who had played at Koshien as underclassmen, Shiga Gakuen (Shiga), Chiben Gakuen (Nara), and Chiben Wakayama (Wakayama), who were competing in the Koshien tournament for the first time as teams this year, were checking how they would play at Koshien as a team, such as the size of the foul zone and cushion balls, while the remaining three schools that had participated in the selection tournament showed how they had grown since the spring.

Kyoto International (Kyoto), which won the Kyoto Tournament with overwhelming strength, has grown rapidly since the Selection Tournament, and pitcher Nishimura Kazuki, who led the team together with ace pitcher Nakazaki Ryusei, carefully checked the feel of the mound. “The mound at Koshien was harder than I expected, but I was able to pitch with a good feeling. This summer, I’ve become able to attack the inside pitches against left-handed batters. I want to show solid pitching at Koshien and win,” he said.

Next up was Osaka Toin (Osaka), who, as usual, focused on batting practice first. What was significantly different from the spring tournament was the sharpness of their hits. Each batter showed off their power and sharpness, including Ramal, who was silent while batting fourth in the spring tournament, who suddenly hit a ball that flew into the side of the back screen.

At the end, the team’s powerful pitchers all took part in a practice session. Pitcher Hirashima Keiichi commented, “I was given the number 1 uniform, but rather than showing my ace spirit, I want to pitch in a way that leads to victory and fight as a team to become Japan’s number one.” Pitcher Mori Haruki, who showed impressive pitching in the Osaka Tournament final, and pitcher Nakano Taitora, who showed outstanding stability in the semi-finals, also showed their fighting spirit as a team, saying, “I just want to contribute to our goal of becoming Japan’s number one.”

The last team to appear was Hotoku Gakuen (Hyogo). Having made it to the finals in the selection tournament, rather than trying to get a feel for Koshien, they had their relief pitcher experience the mound, reaffirming their commitment to fighting as a team. Kosomaru Hiroki, who pitched a shutout in the finals of the Hyogo tournament and is a right-handed pitcher who is attracting attention from professional teams and will be wearing the number “1” this summer, did not practice pitching, but instead memorized the view from the mound.

Coach Osumi Kenji said, “This summer, our first goal was to win the Hyogo Prefectural Tournament. Now that we have achieved that goal (after our opponent has been decided, of course), we would like to take one step at a time toward our next goal of becoming the best in Japan.”

The drawing to decide the opponents will be held on August 4th. Then on August 7th, the 106th All Japan High School Baseball Championship will finally begin, with the aim of crowning the champion to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of Koshien Stadium.