koshien ramblings
post koshien is always the saddest time of the year. last year i really went through withdrawals and ended up watching my sister's favorite baseball anime (which i started over half a decade ago but never finished). joke's on me though cause i actually enjoyed it and even read the manga, something not even my sister has done. thankfully this year wasn't so bad cause i didn't really get attached to any of the players/teams.
although i was kinda sad that kokugakuin kugayama & ohmi lost early on, i wasn't really hopeful that they'd make if far cause i would much rather see seiryo (specifically their ace, okugawa) make it to the finals. it was a stroke of misfortune that they failed to advance to the 3rd round last year but seeing as the team that beat them had to face the eventual champions osaka toin in the semis, i doubt they would've won anyway.
this year they had a few close calls - round 1 against asahikawadai (1-0) & round 3 against chiben wakayama (4-1 in 14inn) - but they did eventually make it to the grand stage. unfortunately their luck ran out as riseisha got the title.
not that i'm disappointed about that cause i also kinda liked riseisha (mostly cause they're osaka toin's biggest rivals and i liked the idea of back-to-back titles. also it was their first one so that's always fun to witness). i just think that seiryo could've played a lot better. they wasted tons of opportunities because of base running errors and only really fell behind because their pitcher made the mistake of walking 2 players. had these things not happened, i think it would've been a pretty easy victory for them. but, well, maybe the pressure was too much for them to handle. they are only high schoolers after all.
this year's summer koshien was exciting cause there wasn't a dominant school. every "powerhouse" team had close games that could've gone either way. i hope future tournaments would be like that too. it's a lot more fun to watch games where you won't know until the last second who's going to take home the crown.
although i was kinda sad that kokugakuin kugayama & ohmi lost early on, i wasn't really hopeful that they'd make if far cause i would much rather see seiryo (specifically their ace, okugawa) make it to the finals. it was a stroke of misfortune that they failed to advance to the 3rd round last year but seeing as the team that beat them had to face the eventual champions osaka toin in the semis, i doubt they would've won anyway.
this year they had a few close calls - round 1 against asahikawadai (1-0) & round 3 against chiben wakayama (4-1 in 14inn) - but they did eventually make it to the grand stage. unfortunately their luck ran out as riseisha got the title.
not that i'm disappointed about that cause i also kinda liked riseisha (mostly cause they're osaka toin's biggest rivals and i liked the idea of back-to-back titles. also it was their first one so that's always fun to witness). i just think that seiryo could've played a lot better. they wasted tons of opportunities because of base running errors and only really fell behind because their pitcher made the mistake of walking 2 players. had these things not happened, i think it would've been a pretty easy victory for them. but, well, maybe the pressure was too much for them to handle. they are only high schoolers after all.
this year's summer koshien was exciting cause there wasn't a dominant school. every "powerhouse" team had close games that could've gone either way. i hope future tournaments would be like that too. it's a lot more fun to watch games where you won't know until the last second who's going to take home the crown.