Watching the 108th National High School Baseball Championship South Hokkaido Tournament Semifinal: Komadai Tomakomai vs. Hokkai!

I went to watch the game between Hokkai and Komadai Tomakomai held at Es Con Field.
What I was looking forward to most was Hokkai's pitcher, Kensei Mori. I wanted to see this highly touted pitcher in person. That desire was a major reason why I went to see this match.

In the early stages, I felt that Mori was indeed a powerful pitcher. His fastball had momentum, and the Komadai Tomakomai batters couldn't easily get a handle on it. There were moments where they seemed to be swinging late, and I think Mori's pitches were overpowering the batters early on.

However, the Komadai Tomakomai lineup didn't give up easily.They didn't try to force hits early on, and it looked like they were letting the ball come in as close as possible.Perhaps that was partly a result of Mori's pitch velocity. Even so, I was left with the impression that they were disciplined, not chasing balls outside the zone and battling through each at-bat by fouling off pitches.

Mori had thrown around 80 pitches by the fifth inning. It wasn't that he collapsed due to walks, but Komadai Tomakomai didn't make easy outs, gradually driving up his pitch count. I think that, combined with their growing familiarity with him in the second and third times through the order, led to the tying run, the go-ahead run, and the insurance runs from the fifth inning onward.

What left a particularly strong impression was Komadai Tomakomai's baserunning. Against both Mori and pitcher Ono, there were many instances where runners stole the pitchers' motions and took off with great confidence. The steal of third base in the fifth inning was a huge play that turned a subsequent right-field single into a guaranteed tying run.

Rather than trying to break Mori down all at once, they gradually put pressure on him through pitch counts and baserunning. The strength of Komadai Tomakomai as a team was evident in that accumulation of efforts.

On the other hand, Hokkai also had opportunities to seize the momentum from the start. They created situations that could easily have led to runs, such as one out with runners on first and third in the first inning, and no outs with runners on first and second in the third. However, they couldn't score due to double plays and flyouts, and even after taking the lead in the fourth, they were unable to add any more runs.

And what really changed the flow of the game was Komadai Tomakomai's second pitcher, Taia Sato. Looking only at his pitch speed, he didn't seem like an exceptionally fast pitcher. Even so, the Hokkai lineup frequently swung and missed or mishit the ball, even in counts that favored the batter. He gave the impression of holding the ball well and having a difficult release point, and even when he allowed hits, he shut down the next batters, never giving Hokkai a chance to mount a comeback.

I went to the game to see the power of Mori, but in the end, what left the biggest impression was how Komadai Tomakomai faced that power. They battled at the plate, rattled the opposition with their baserunning, and connected those efforts to scoring in the late innings. More than individual talent, I was struck by how well both teams expressed what they wanted to do, and the high level of completeness they showed as teams.

It was a wonderful day for baseball that kept me excited from start to finish—it could easily have been the final.