Sakurazawa.
The guys from Seido High School Baseball Team racked their brains but couldn't remember which team this was.
West Tokyo has over a hundred baseball teams, and Seido High School couldn't possibly be familiar with every single one. The teams they remembered were either those they had played against before, or those that had performed exceptionally well in West Tokyo.
As for the others, the guys from Seido High School Baseball Team couldn't be too familiar with them.
Clearly, Sakurazawa High School belonged to the category of teams that Seido High School Baseball Team was unfamiliar with.
"Such a team made it to the third round, the top sixty-four?"
In a fiercely competitive region like West Tokyo, with each round advanced, a team's strength undergoes a dramatic change.
Making it to the second round might still involve an element of luck.
After all, if you're lucky in the draw and happen to get a weaker opponent, such a thing can happen.
For example, it's like the 99th-ranked team encountering the 101st-ranked team.
One team being able to defeat the other seems perfectly natural.
But no matter what, there's a limit to such things. In the second round, the probability of a weak team encountering another weak team becomes extremely small.
Teams that can make it to the third round, eliminating more than half of their opponents in West Tokyo, must have some strength.
Even a top-tier powerhouse like Seido High School Baseball Team needs to be careful when playing against these teams.
While losing the game might not happen, a messy game process would be a significant blow to the reputation of a powerhouse high school team.
This means that while such teams are generally no match for a national top-tier powerhouse like Seido High School Baseball Team, they can still put up a fight to some extent.
It was precisely because of this understanding that the guys from Seido High School Baseball Team found it hard to imagine that a team capable of reaching this stage, a team they would face, had been completely unknown to them before.
This unknown made the guys from Seido High School Baseball Team feel very uncomfortable.
They were eager to know what mystery lay within.
"Are there game videos? I want to watch them as soon as possible."
Miyuki went straight to the point with his request.
As the team's main catcher, he felt it was his responsibility.
Zhang Han was the same.
He proactively requested to watch the game videos first to determine what kind of opponent they would face in their first game.
Even though Coach Kataoka had already told him that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he probably wouldn't play in the first game.
But as the team's Ace, Zhang Han had a feeling that their opponent in the first game might not be ordinary.
"Meeting immediately."
Coach Kataoka announced directly.
"Is this really necessary?"
It was just a team whose name they had never heard before, suddenly making it to the third round. That's all.
Although such incidents were rare, they weren't unprecedented. Manager Ota was very surprised. Coach Kataoka, who was usually calm and unfazed even by collapsing mountains, how could he suddenly be like this?
To this point, Coach Ochiai gave a clear answer.
"With the precedent of Yakushi High School Baseball Team, who would still underestimate a team that suddenly emerges?"
Everyone who heard this fell silent.
If there was any big news in the Tokyo Spring Tournament, Seido High School Baseball Team's strong championship win probably only ranked second.
At that time, the biggest and most exciting news in all of Tokyo was the sudden emergence of the dark horse, Yakushi High School Baseball Team.
How many years had it been since Tokyo last won the Koshien championship?
Although the Spring Invitational Tournament championship was slightly less prestigious, for Tokyo, which hadn't won the Koshien championship for over a decade, such a surprise was enough to make them celebrate.
And that wasn't all.
It's important to know that Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team's Spring Koshien championship was not due to luck, but to their incredibly powerful strength. It's hard to say whether Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team, possessing such formidable strength, could, like they did in the spring, continue to win the Koshien championship this summer.
If they could, then all the frustration Tokyo had endured for so many years would surely be completely released.
Aside from Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team's competitors, almost everyone was very optimistic about the path Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team was about to take.
They had a very strong positive feeling towards this team that had brought them honor.
Even some of the guys from Seido High School Baseball Team, when discussing Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team in private, believed that Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team's luck had arrived.
This was something that no other team, no one else, could snatch away.
Although they worked very hard, and their main players were also very capable. Unfortunately, the goddesses of destiny and luck were not on their side, but firmly stood behind Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team.
Under such circumstances, no matter how much effort they put in, it would be difficult to change the current situation.
This was undoubtedly very despairing.
Some unwilling guys from Seido High School Baseball Team made up their minds at that time that when they encountered Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team, they would definitely let those guys see their fighting spirit.
Just because they won the Spring Koshien championship, Inashiro Industrial wouldn't be able to swagger around in this small corner of Tokyo.
However, at this very moment, a suddenly emerging team shattered everyone's imagination.
The seemingly incredibly strong Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team, almost without any weaknesses.
When facing this opponent, to everyone's surprise, lost the game.
A suddenly appearing dark horse defeated the freshly crowned National Champions.
While there was certainly an element of coincidence, the role of the dark horse was also evident.
With this lesson, all the powerhouse teams in the Tokyo area paid extremely close attention to any dark horses that suddenly emerged.
They absolutely did not want such a tragedy to repeat itself on them.
It was precisely for this reason that when Coach Kataoka realized that the suddenly appearing Sakurazawa High School might be a dark horse team, he almost without any hesitation, gathered all the players.
Coach Kataoka even felt a bit of regret.
He shouldn't have been prejudiced and, upon seeing the names of those two teams, not had the players observe the game on site.
Although observing the game on site would waste the players' training time.
But facing such an important first opponent, the guys from Seido High School Baseball Team definitely had a reason to do so.
Assessing the opponent's strength through game videos was, after all, too rudimentary.
Some things, if not seen live, simply couldn't be discerned.
For example, if you were to watch Sawamura Eijun and Furuya Satoru's pitch through game videos.
Then your most direct feeling would be that Furuya Satoru is very strong.
Even watching from the side, this feeling wouldn't be much different.
Only by truly standing in the batter's box could one discern the differences.
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