Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!

Arthur joined me at Koshien Stadium today. The first game was an absolute cracker! Riseisha, from Osaka, played Kasumigaura from Ibaraki. As we hoped, Riseisha won, but it was by no means an easy win despite the fact that they scored an astonishing seven home runs in this game! In fact, the first ball of the game, hit by Riseisha, was a home run! What a great start! Anyway, the final score was 11-6 to Riseisha. On the basis of today's incredible performance, I am sure they will make it to the final.

The second game, between Tsuda Gakkuen and Shizuoka was pretty boring, with a final score of 3-1 to Tsuda.

Arthur and I had expected the third game, between Seiryo and Asahikawa Dai, to be another high scoring game. Unfortunately, it wasn't. That was not because the players performed poorly, however, it was because the pitchers and fielders on both teams were both incredibly strong. In fact, the pitcher for Seiryo, Okugawa Toshinobu, was pitching balls at 153 kph, the speed of top professional pitchers! I am sure there are many teams waiting to sign this guy once he graduates. Anyway, the game was a long series of strike outs, and whenever a ball was hit into play it was usually caught, so the game ended 1-0 to Seiryo. 

The temperature reached 36 degrees celsius, or 96.8 degrees fahrenheit today, but Arthur and I, along with thousands of others, survived and thoroughly enjoyed almost eight hours of baseball. I'll be back for more  tomorrow to watch Chiben Wakayama play Totori for sure, and perhaps some more besides.

Pretty sure this will be played by the support bands at least twenty times - African Symphony.