Yamanashi Gakuin reached the top of Senbatsu High School baseball.
Yamanashi Gakuin, who have never won a championship throughout the spring and summer, have been fighting with the spirit of a challenger, and in the final they did not lose sight of themselves and showed their strength, achieving the best result.
Yamanashi Gakuin's final opponent is Hyogo's Hotoku Gakuen. The team has won the Senbatsu championship twice, won the overtime twice in this tournament, and in the semi-finals, they bounced back from a five-goal deficit to Osaka Toin, who are aiming for back-to-back titles, to advance to the final.
Director Koji Yoshida revealed, "Ninety percent of the people in the world, even I, as the director, think that it is advantageous."
In fact, pitcher Kengo Hayashi, who has started all six games, gave up two runs in one inning for the first time in the tournament in the fourth inning to take the lead.
Even so, the players, who had the "spirit of a challenger," were not in a hurry because they had heard from coach Yoshida in advance that it would be great if they scored less than two runs in five innings.
Then, before the fifth inning, manager Kento Yoshida, who is also the eldest son of the manager, urged him to "eat without rushing," and when he prepared his mind, he got five consecutive hits from Hayashi.
Ten batters, including a two-run home run by Daiki Sanaka in the fifth, scored seven runs on six hits and scored seven runs. Captain Shindo Ten proudly spoke of the five attacks, saying, "We were able to keep everyone going."
And Hayashi, who received support, did not float, saying, "Even if there were runners out, I was going to concentrate on each batter and throw," and after the comeback, he limited the opponent's counterattack to one run and threw his fourth complete game of the tournament.
Throughout the tournament, he showed his presence as an ace by throwing 1 pitches in six games.
Coach Yoshida reflected on the final, saying, "It was easy for the challengers, and it was a match where we showed our strength with nothing to lose."
Yamanashi Gakuin, who will bring the purple-blue championship flag back to Yamanashi for the first time as the champion of spring, will now aim for the summer Koshien as a position to be chased.