Diamond Ace Takanono

Chapter 81 U15 Preliminaries
After winning the preliminary round, the next round was Cuba, where Takano took a complete rest. In this game, the Japanese team, a group of children from capitalist countries, saw what is called "red lightning", and red means socialism.

Cuban children, the equipment will be slightly worse, and their hobbies are different——

"Hey, he doesn't wear hitting gloves." On the strike zone, the hitter clamped the bat between his legs, spit two mouthfuls and rubbed his hands, and then picked up the bat to hit again. The rest of the Cuban players were wearing striking gloves.

"Eh..." Everyone's hands suddenly started to itch.

"The conditions are so difficult, and you still come by plane, can you be reimbursed?"

"perhaps?"

Such a team beat the pampered Japanese team 2:5. Everyone originally thought that baseball, as Japan’s national sport, was probably the most baseball-loving country in the world. Unexpectedly, in distant South America, the third world The kids can play better than them.

'Sure enough, baseball is a sport that can be played with only a ball and a bat. China has not popularized it, but China has only been colonized for a short period of time, which is a blessing. 'In fact, the strong baseball atmosphere in Japan, South Korea, and Latin American countries has a lot to do with their long-term colonization or influence by the West.

"Hey—is that person holding the game ball?" A player who fell behind pointed to the opposite side.

Hayakawa quickly pressed his hand down: "Probably as a souvenir, let's go."

Fortunately, it was not discovered by the opponent. The language barrier between the two sides, it would be bad if there was a conflict. Moreover, whether the ball can be used in the game itself is quite ambiguous. Many times, the players in the game will give the ball to the off-court casually. audience.

Their third game is Russia. Gao Zhiye’s private message has already received news from the players of the Chinese team, saying that they scored 19 points for Russia, and the Chinese team only lost 1 point. They suggested that they should not let Russia go. scoring team.

In this match, the coaches only found very few images of the Russian team members, and it was difficult to analyze them effectively, so they watched the match between the Chinese team and the Russian team that night.

"So only 5 rounds were played?" The score is already so disparate, isn't it? . .

After watching the game, Coach Ninomiya gave everyone some popular science. The sport of baseball may have appeared in Russia at the earliest. It has been more than 400 years ago. It was used by soldiers to keep fit, but now Russia’s most popular ball The class is not baseball, and they don't often participate in U15 events.

"So I won't start tomorrow." On the way back to the house, Takano complained to Hayakawa, who, as the main catcher, was always there.

"Don't worry, there will definitely be a time for you to play in the future."

On the third day, at 06:30 in the afternoon, the game against Russia officially began. Gao Zhiye watched the score move towards double digits. By the end of the game, Russia had lost 20 points, but the Didn't get any points.

Looking at those Russians who are generally a head taller than Japanese players, but clumsy like bears in this sport, Takano couldn't help but sigh: "Sure enough, good physical fitness may not necessarily play baseball well."

As a person who develops one step ahead of everyone, he is likely to take the lead in the early stage, but in the later stage, when everyone else has reached the development stage, he has already begun to enter the plateau stage of growth, and the gap between him and others in terms of physical fitness will become bigger and bigger. Gao Zhiye is thinking about how to take advantage of the opportunity during this period of time and turn his comparative advantage into an absolute advantage.

At the beginning of the fourth game, the venue was changed to Taichung Baseball Stadium. The opponent was Venezuela, who was also from South America. This time it was Gao Zhiye who took the lead.

"Finally satisfied, I said the coach will let you play."

"Look, they're drawing the thing right now."

"Is it black eye ointment painted by professional baseball players? Why are they white?"

"Stupid, if it's black eye cream, you don't need to paint it at all."

"That catcher looks so oriental. What's that word called? He has beautiful features?"

At the start of the game, the Japanese team took the lead. I don’t know if the pitching skills of the two countries are not very similar. Takano looked at the pitcher. After each pitch, his body was unstable and he had to use his hands to support him so as not to fall to the ground.

"Is pitching like that good for your health?" Takano complained to Hayakawa, but Hayakawa didn't get a reply. The first bat was struck out, and he was ready to play as the third bat.

The Japanese team's second batter took a risk and chose bunt when the start was bad. The ball was in front of the mound, but it was closer to the catcher. The Venezuelan pitcher chose to go down the mound by himself. Squatting to the side to dodge, such a big obstacle also made the pitcher's movement of picking up the ball stagnate for a while, this effort is enough for a second bat to hit base.

"Oh——" everyone in the Japanese team became happy. Mistakes can not only boost the momentum of the attacking side, but also affect the mood of the defensive side. Look at Venezuela, why are there quarrels about shooting and catching.

South Americans speak loudly and move a lot. They shrug their shoulders, point at each other with palms like cattail palms, and mutter.

"Is it arguing? It's so loud." Everyone on the Japanese team couldn't help talking.

But the catcher tilted his head, lowered his arms, and returned to the home plate, "There is no quarrel, it seems that the words are fierce."

"Probably because of the speaking characteristics of the people over there."

The three-bat Hayakawa took advantage of the emotional instability of the opponent's pitcher and hit a series of hits. The four-bat hit a Chang'an in the direction of left field and sent back two runs.

In the end, the Japanese team scored 3 points in the first game. Takano played steadily in the second half of the game. Although he was a little uncomfortable at the beginning, he still did not lose points in the end.

"Those people are pretty good..." Gao Zhiye said to Hayakawa a little unwillingly after he left the field.

"They are so close to the United States, and many people play there. Of course they will be good, but it can be clearly seen that their golf is not meticulous, and it is still a little worse than ours."

Gao Zhiye took it for granted. He was the eighth bat, and he was the first to play in the second inning. As a result, he faced the ball thrown by that weird posture for the first time, and only hit an outfield high fly.

At the beginning of the second game, the two teams began to adapt to each other, and it was a bit difficult to separate. However, the Japanese team had a 3-point advantage at the beginning, and then scored 2 points, ending the fourth game with a score of 5:1.

"In the end, I still lost a point."

"Not bad, your winning rate is 100% now, and you have a chance to compete for the winning rate king in this competition."

This talkative teammate was immediately suppressed by everyone, "Don't put too much pressure on the pitcher. The ranking of the game is based on the score-to-loss ratio. The pitcher's loss is only half, and the other half is the hit."

"Okay okay."

After the game, everyone went back to the hotel in order to watch the Australian team's video tomorrow. The original idea of ​​going around to relax after the game did not come true at all, but was watched by Coach Ninomiya.

"Let's wait until the preliminaries are over. One day's rest time, you should be able to apply for a few hours to go out." Under everyone's pressure, Hayakawa, as the captain, promised to lobby the coach.

As a result, on the second day, they lost to the Australian team by a score of 9:10. After winning the Chinese team, we should win the Australian team..."

At the end of the preliminaries, the Japanese team had 3 wins and 2 losses, with a score-to-loss ratio of 3, ranking second in Group A, 2 points behind Cuba.

Fortunately, after losing the game, Coach Ninomiya approved everyone to go out for a walk. As everyone's guide, Gao Zhiye had to do two hours of homework after the game, and prepared the route and backup plan before setting off.

Time was tight, so everyone went shopping in downtown Taichung. It was very convenient to have Gao Zhiye who can speak Chinese. Of course, the only unhappy person was Gao Zhiye himself. A total of 8 people came out, and he had to Assist Hayakawa and the coach to prevent accidents.

　Checking the results, I only passed three of the four subjects, and I will continue to take the exam next year. . .

　　
　
(End of this chapter)