Chapter 312: Pre-Match Analysis

The two-day break ended. That evening, everyone from the Seido Baseball Club gathered in the conference room. Just as mentioned before, for Seido High School, the summer had only just begun.

Reviewing the previous match in a timely manner and holding a meeting regarding the upcoming Koshien tournament were both matters of great urgency.

Before Coach Kataoka and Coach Ochiai arrived at the conference room, the team members sat together in small groups, chatting idly.

"Hey, Huangqian, did you go to a concert last night?" Kuramochi said, holding an ice cream as he walked over and sat down next to Huangqian Yangyi.

"Yeah," Huangqian Yangyi replied, turning his head.

"Tsk tsk, not bad. Koshien is starting right away, and you're not nervous at all," Kuramochi Yoichi said.

Watching the ice cream melt and drip a little onto Kuramochi's leg, Huangqian Yangyi silently pushed him a bit further away.

"It's not like I haven't played there before, what's there to be nervous about?"

"Heh, it's Koshien, man. You'd be nervous even if you played there 100 times," Kuramochi said.

Just then, Coach Kataoka pushed the door open and walked in, followed in order by Ochiai Hiromitsu, Takashima Rei, and Department Head Ota.

"Is everyone here?"

Coach Kataoka slapped a stack of paper documents onto the table and swept his gaze across the room.

"Everyone is here, Coach!"

Team Captain Yuki Tetsuya stood up and said.

Coach Kataoka nodded. "Sit down."

*Thump, thump~*

Tapping the table, Coach Kataoka said, "This time, we defeated Inashiro Industrial and earned the right to appear in the Summer Koshien. I know everyone is very happy, and I am happy too."

"However, in just a few days, the Koshien tournament proper will begin. Time waits for no one. You all should have relaxed your bodies during the two-day break. Over the next few days, you must maintain a minimum level of training; do not waste your stamina, but do not let your bodies rust either. You must ensure your bodies stay in peak condition."

"Yes! Coach!"

Everyone answered in unison.

After finishing his opening remarks, Coach Kataoka played the recording of the match against Inashiro from two days ago, leading everyone through a detailed analysis from a tactical perspective from start to finish.

Following this, Coach Ochiai provided guidance and corrections regarding technical issues based on each player's performance in the match.

Whether it was Coach Kataoka's instructions on tactics or Coach Ochiai's pointers on technique, everyone listened with great interest, earnestly absorbing everything useful for themselves and the team.

Behind Huangqian Yangyi, the four First Years each held a small notebook, writing down whatever the Coach or the instructor mentioned. Especially Sawamura, who basically didn't understand much, but this guy was smart enough to know that a dull pencil is better than a sharp mind. Conversely, that kid Furuya would doze off from time to time; to him, these things were like a lullaby.

A full two hours passed before the review and analysis of the previous match finally concluded.

"Now, lastly, the arrangements for the matches in August," Coach Kataoka said.

Hearing this, the substitute players on the First String all became nervous.

With two spots to be cut, they had spent the two-day break worrying about whether they would be the ones removed, unable to even sleep well.

As it turned out, Coach Kataoka looked toward the Manager, Fujiwara Takako, sitting in the corner of the front row.

"Fujiwara-san, please."

Fujiwara Takako stood up, took a USB drive out of her small bag, and walked to the front to fiddle with the projector and computer.

Soon, an image appeared on the screen, all of it data Fujiwara Takako had collected over these days on the winning teams from various prefectures and regions, covering those estimated forty-nine teams participating in the Summer Koshien.

Among them, excluding their own team, the other team from the Tokyo region was Teito High School.

As for the others, there were quite a few familiar faces.

For instance, Osaka, which like West Tokyo is a fierce battleground; this year's representative team from the Osaka region was Osaka Kiryu High School, which had a fierce clash with Seido in the semi-finals of last year's Summer Koshien. This year, they were back, and under the leadership of their ace who also served as the 4th batter, Tachi Hiromi, Osaka Kiryu had successfully become the winning team of the Osaka region.

Then there was the winning representative from Aichi Prefecture, Seibo High School, who competed with Seido for the Koshien championship in the finals last year. This year, they were even stronger than last year, especially their batting lineup, which was led by the man known as the 'Monster', Sano Shuzo. His batting level was by no means inferior to Harada Masatoshi.

In addition, data for schools like Hongai Daisagami and Hakuryu were also fully available.

Coach Kataoka selected some opponents worth noting for a brief overview; most were powerhouses from various regions, strong schools that entered Koshien year after year.

Just then, Huangqian Yangyi raised his hand.

"Huangqian, what is it?" Coach Kataoka asked.

During the meeting, Huangqian Yangyi suddenly raising his hand meant he had definitely discovered something; it certainly couldn't be because he wanted to go to the bathroom.

"Boss, take a look at the South Hokkaido region team," Huangqian Yangyi said.

"South Hokkaido region?" Coach Kataoka paused. That place, Hokkaido, didn't seem to have any strong teams.

Although he had doubts in his heart, he still scrolled the list to the Hokkaido region.

Hokkaido region, winning team: Komadai Fujimaki, known as the 'Ice Legion of the North'.

Their Coach, Nitta Shinzo, was a manager with decisive tactics who excelled at using psychological warfare and aggressive strategies.

The team was famous for its relief pitching tactics, frequently changing pitchers to prevent the opponent's batting lineup from finding a rhythm, while simultaneously possessing extremely tight defense. They had used this to defeat numerous strong enemies during the regional tournament.

"Is there someone you know here?" Coach Kataoka asked while browsing the data on Komadai Fujimaki.

This team didn't seem to have any standout features, and the tactic of frequently changing pitchers was quite common.

"Not really, I just saw news about this team on the internet before. It's said their pitchers are all very formidable, and there's even a First Year on the team who can reach a pitch speed of 150 km/h. It's said his performance is very good," Huangqian Yangyi said, then turned his head to look at Furuya.

"Just like Furuya, both are fastball pitchers, both are from Hokkaido, and they are in the same year."

Upon hearing this, everyone turned their gaze toward Furuya Satoru.

"Furuya, do you know this person?" Miyuki asked.

Furuya shook his head blankly; how would he know these things?

At the front, after hearing this, Coach Kataoka found the information on this pitcher within the Komadai Fujimaki data.

His name was Hongo Masamune, his maximum pitch speed was 151 km/h, and he excelled at the Forkball. There was no further information.

"I'm sorry, I only managed to collect this much," Fujiwara Takako said from the side.

"Senior, you've already done great. It must have been hard to collect so much data," Huangqian Yangyi said.

For a dark horse team like Komadai Fujimaki, there was very little data to be collected to begin with; Fujiwara Takako had done her best.

Fujiwara Takako shook her head. "No, this is what I should do."