LIFE IN DIAMOND NO ACE WORLd

start of jingu tournament

Meiji jingu tournament this year would be held at the meiji jingu stadium in shinjuku Tokyo as always from November 9 to 13 . There the best team from the 10 regional winners will be decided after the finals on 13 November. 

The ten winners from their respective regions like hokkaido , kyushu,  Tokyo etc  will come and fight it out to decide the best .

We arrived and were awed by the  sheer number of spectator seats that were more than 37000 and koshien would be more large . We were now excited to fight and win the tournament as the winner of jingu is guaranteed a spot in koshien spring tournament. 

We arrived in our dugout listening to the excitement of the crowd and saw our opponent team . Our opponent was minou high school team . The wave of confidence after winning their regional tournament was felt from them as we glared  at each other. 

To be honest , I didn't bother to remember any names of the opponent team players as there was nobody whom I can be friends with and it was a pain .  Our match started with the horn and noise from the crowd . Today's starter pitcher was furuya who was now a more reliable pitcher after all that training and it was decided that it was our turn to field first .

I was also a starter as left fielder and 6 th batter . I was looking forward to display my A + fielding skills as there were not many chances to display in it in the regional tournament.  As expected their batters didn't disappoint and hit the monstrous fastballs really hard . Even though they were national class batters , they could not hit that much because furuya could control his fastballs 80 percent accuracy and miyuki senpais aggressive lead that toyed with them . It was very difficult to hit his balls when they perfectly went in the in inlow and outlow courses . Still the hits were powerful and it required very hard focus to not display any errors during our fielding . It was great fun fielding that day and I saved furuya with Many fine plays and got shouts of excitement from the crowd. 

Their first 3 batters hit ball very well but were struck out after 15 pitches.  They fouled many times and it could be seen that only fastballs were not enough to stop the opponent batters .

Our batting turn came . Kurmochi senpai got struck out without hitting the ball . Their pitcher was good  . Speed and control was  national class but not enough to go pro . It would pose no problem to me to hit his  balls . Kominato senpai fouled many times to bring a meatball but got struck out in the end after the battery started using curve balls . Jun senpai hot a hit after swinging his bat with al might like always but unfortunately it was a fly to outfield which of course got caught by their fielder and that was it for our bating in the 1st inning .

In the second inning the opponents 4th batter score a home run by hitting furuya s in high fastball . Miyuki senpai got a time out and went to talk to furuya so that it could not affect his future pitching. 

Before the match   

Ken - furuya , you are the starter pitcher today . But dont expect to stop the opponent at 0 runs today as the national class teams are strong . I know that you've gotten way better in this short time but it's not enough for that . So dont self destruct..

Interrupt

Furuya- I know . Dont worry , I plan to pitch the whole game ( aura ) . And my back is very strong .

Ken - you you ... ( fake tears ) you got big furuya chan .

Furuya- ignore ...

After that small dialogue before the match I know that furuya would not self destruct so I didn't go to appease him . As expected he struck out the next batters showing more will power.  

Yuki senpai hit a 2 base from the pitcher and masuko senpai hit a sacrifice bunt to successfully advance yuki senpai to the 3rd base . My first at bat was in such a exciting situation.  I released my aura at full power listening to the shouts from the crowd and my teammates and stood in the batter box . First pitch was a inlow curve ball which I intentionally let pass by without even swinging the bat . The battery must have thought that I couldn't see the ball and threw the same ball in the same course again which they were obviously wrong as I always let the first ball pass if its not a meatball to confirm the trajectory of the ball . When ball came close,  I took a heavy step and swung my bat with full power and the ball went flying . I threw the bat and started running the bases slowly . The  crowd went wild as I the ball hit the backscreen and  I scored a 3 run home run .

The match continued. Furuya was hit a few times more and they scored 3 runs in total from him . The runs were less because miyuki senpai started calling for slider balls too which got better and better in the last innings. 

At the end we won the match . The final score was 8 to 0 .

My achievements in the match were .

3 at bats 2 home run and walked one time .

It was an exciting match and I think the crowd enjoyed it very much . We celebrated our with happy expressions while opponent bench was quiet.  Furuya was praised by the coach for pitching a full game and still only allowing 3 runs from such a strong team. 

We thanked the crowd for cheering and went home after shaking hands  with the opponent players.