Senbatsu High School Baseball will feature three second-round games on the fifth day of the tournament.

Game 1

The first match will be a meeting between the two players for the first time, with Hikari High School in Yamaguchi and Hikone Sogo High School in Shiga facing each other.

Hikari is the captain and ace pitcher Hayato Masuda is the mainstay of the team, and he threw complete games in eight of the nine official games last fall with a stretchy straight.

They have participated in the national high school baseball tournament twice in the summer, but lost the first game both times, so they will aim to win their first Koshien game.

Hikone Sogo is the only team selected in the general selection process to participate for the first time throughout the spring and summer.

Led by left-handed ace pitcher Yosuke Noshita, they have a tenacious fighting style, and at the Tournament last fall, they showed a battle against Osaka Toin High School, who are aiming for back-to-back Senbatsu titles.

It is also noteworthy that the directors of Hikari no Miyaaki Takashi and Hikone Sogo director Yuya Miyazaki, both of whom have experienced Koshien as directors of different schools, are also noteworthy.

Game 2

The second match will be between Tokoha Okikugawa High School in Shizuoka and Sendai Matsudo High School in Chiba.

Tokoha Okikugawa, who won the 2 Senbatsu Championship, has catcher Kano Suzuki as the key offensive and defensive player.

In an official game last fall, he batted No. 2007 and posted a team-leading batting average of 4.4.3 with 2 RBIs, and he also skillfully led the pitching staff including ace Ayaya Kubo, who had a 14-run ERA defensively.

Sendai Matsudo is a right-handed pitcher who is attracting attention in this tournament, as the ace pitcher Daichi Hirano throws straight at the fastest speed of over 0 km.

Last year, he pitched as a reliever due to injury at the Kanto Tournament in the fall, and it seems that the key will be whether he has been able to improve his condition for Senbatsu.

Game 3

The third match will be between Joto High School in Tokushima, who will be making their first appearance throughout the spring and summer in the 3st century, and Tokai University Sugo High School, who won the Tokyo Olympics last fall.

Joto honed his small skills and mobility in the "bunt game" where he aims to score only with bunts, and in official games last fall, he averaged three stolen bases per game, led by Katoshi Souma, who has a quick foot.

In the pre-match defensive practice, women's manager Yuna Nagano will serve as a knocker.

Tokai Daisugo has a strength of nearly 21 kilograms of straights thrown down from a height of 1 meter and 3 centimeters by ace pitcher Naoki Hihata, and led the team to the championship at the Tokyo Games last fall with a stable pitching with a 1-run average.