The finals of the 105th Japan National High School Baseball Tournament, one of the biggest events of the summer, will be held at Hanshin Koshien Stadium starting at 2 p.m. on the 23rd. This year’s final pits last year’s winners, Sendai Ikuei (Miyagi), against Keio (Kanagawa), who are making their first appearance in the final in 103 years.
Despite the absence of the Kansai team, the atmosphere is as hot as ever. Despite being rescheduled by one day due to the typhoon, online ticket sales the day before started with a sellout of the third base alpine seats for Keio, and within two hours, all outfield seats were sold.
This year’s final will be played in record high temperatures, with a daytime high of 34 degrees Celsius and a wind chill of more than 40 degrees Celsius, and player stamina is expected to be a major factor in the outcome. On the 23rd, Koshien Stadium is expected to be cloudy at 2pm with rain forecast to start at 4pm.
Looking at the journeys of the two teams, Sendai Ikuei will be making their sixth appearance in the final, starting with the first round, while Keio will be making their sixth appearance, starting with the second round. This is only the third time since 2015 that teams with different numbers of matches have met in the final, with the previous two times both going the full six games.온라인카지노
That doesn’t necessarily give Keio an advantage. In the semifinals, Keio had ace Masami Oyachi throw a 118-pitch complete game. Ikuei will be led by ace Kouki Takahashi. It will be interesting to see how both teams’ gameplans will play out.
The first team to strike first is expected to be the key to victory or defeat. In this tournament, the team that scores first is 33-14, with a winning percentage of over 7%. Sendai Ikuei scored first in four of the first five games to take the lead. In the semifinals, however, they came back from an early deficit to take the lead.
Keio also took the lead in three of their first four games, and in the quarterfinals, they were able to come back from a two-point deficit in the middle of the game with a six-point run late in the game.
Meanwhile, in a Japanese Yahoo poll (18,927 votes) ahead of the quarterfinals, the favorites were Sendai Ikuei (43.5%) and Keio Kanagawa (22.1%).