Outside the window, a heavy downpour started.

Raindrops fell from the sky, hitting the glass window with a "plop, plop" sound. The rain became heavier and heavier, and the sky and the earth seemed to be covered with a bead curtain, making the distant scenery gradually blurred.

Nishino Tetsu felt the freshness of the air in the rain, but now he only cared about when the rain would stop.

"We may have to suspend training today."

Worried in his heart, he could only concentrate on listening to the class. After all, the teacher above was still giving lectures, so he should forget about departmental activities for now.

In the afternoon, the heavy rain finally began to lighten up, but depending on the intensity of the rain, training on the court should not be possible.

Going to the department activity room, Totoji did not cancel the training, but took them to do some basic exercises in the school teaching building.

"Bata Bata"

The rain fell on the tiles in the passage between the teaching buildings, splashing water and covering it like a thin layer of smoke.

Accompanied by the sound of wind and rain, Tetsu Nishino and the others stood in a row in the corridor between the buildings, waving their arms constantly and practicing their swing.

The rainwater flowed down the eaves, splashed on the ground, and wet the players' trousers.

"Swish"

The players who were immersed in practice didn't care and only focused on repeating boring actions.

In the stairs of the teaching building.

Some players ran up and down the stairs repeatedly to exercise their leg strength.

During departmental activities, tables and other debris were moved aside, leaving enough space for players to conduct strength training.

The players were doing deadlifts, squats, dumbbell extensions and other exercises that didn't require much equipment.

Of course, Nishino Kazuya will participate in every strength training session. Now his most important topic is to gain muscle and gain weight, so he has been combining eating and training, and his weight has steadily increased.

As for the sharp decline in ball control caused by the increase in weight and strength in the short term, we will not consider it now. We will practice ball control and ball changes after the ball quality improves.

After all, baseball is a sport that relies heavily on physical talent, especially pitchers. Height and weight are very important indicators.

It's not that small players can't do it, but it's just that compared to tall pitchers, it's twice as difficult for small pitchers to survive in professional baseball.

For a high school student like Nishino Kazuya with good physical talent, the most important thing is to grow his body step by step so as not to be overly consumed in frequent games.

In the passage between teaching buildings.

"call......"

Drops of sweat slid down his cheeks. Tetsu Nishino picked up the towel hanging around his neck and wiped his face, then continued to raise the bat and swung it again and again.

It has been a few months since I joined the baseball club, and Tetsu Nishino seems to have been trusted by everyone without even realizing it.

He is a first-year player and should be the weakest link in the team's lineup.

But the attitude of the seniors towards him was as if they regarded him as the core of the team, and by default he was the team's main catcher.

Tetsu Nishino was puzzled and once asked the captain Hiroki Tsuji. After all, he was the team's main catcher.

However, Tsuji Hiroki's answer was.

"Aren't you the real catcher?"

Tetsu Nishino thought that like other high schools, first-year catchers would have to wait for two years before they could be selected as starters in their third year.

Tsuji Hiroki told him not to think too much.

The Hakusan High School Baseball Club has almost been decommissioned in the past few years. With only 9 members available, where is the difference between a catcher and a substitute?

There were barely nine people in the back, and the catchers were all chosen from among the outfielders. Even Tsuji Hiroki was a outfielder who became a catcher and temporarily stepped in.

The situation of using several catchers only happens in private schools.

It was Tetsu Nishino's current generation that really began to restore orthodox catchers, or rather Tetsu Nishino.

So naturally, everyone in the baseball team regarded him as a catcher.

After all, the club finally has someone to train as a catcher, so they must be chosen first. The second- and third-year temporary catchers only have more game experience than Tetsu Nishino.

When it comes to the basic skills of catchers, they may not be as good as Tetsu Nishino.

If Tetsu Nishino initially trained as a fielder, he would have to face competition from several people for one position, and he might not be the first choice until his second or third year.

But he was training as a catcher and had no competitors.

Moreover, Tsuji Hiroki is more willing to be a fielder, so Nishino Tetsu has no competition at all.

In this way, Tetsu Nishino got the position of the team's main catcher. When he made an agreement with him, Kazuya Nishino did not consider this situation, and now he regrets it to death.

............

It rained for several days, so they could only train in the teaching building.

In the meantime.

Totoji also took time to let everyone watch the game videos together, watch other schools' games, and do some tactical analysis.

After the weather improved, the baseball team resumed training on the field.

Every day, the players arrive at the stadium early and go back in the evening. When they arrive at school, they take the supervisor's minibus to play games between training sessions.

Day by day, week by week passed.

The teenagers' training uniforms are wearing out faster and faster, and it takes longer to wash the dirty jerseys every day.

The baseballs that were originally kept white by the players became increasingly dirty, yellowed, and the seams broke.

During the daily training, the two managers, who had some free time, watched the boys practicing hard on the field, sitting in the arbor, picking up the needles and threads in their hands, and repairing baseballs one by one.

Nishino Tetsu gradually tasted some of the flavor of summer.

Early summer is here.

There are often no clouds in the sky in Hakusan Town, and the huge sun hangs in the sky, scorching the golf course.

Even though all the players on the training ground were wearing baseball caps, they still felt unbearably hot.

While eating the ice cream bought by his seniors, Tetsu Nishino looked at the record sheet of practice matches played in the past few weeks.

Nishino Kazuya, who was biting an ice cream next to him, said vaguely: "Zhe, we should be going to sleep together soon, right?"

"Um."

Tetsu Nishino replied without raising his head. Indeed, the baseball club's camp was about to begin.

Although Hakusan High School has played a lot of practice games recently, the opponents are basically schools in the prefecture, and they get tired of playing too many games.

Before the county meeting every year, Totoji would take his children to play games in other counties for about a week, which was barely considered an overnight stay.

Due to insufficient funds, Higashikata Division could only look for nearby counties. Last year Tsuji Hiroki and the others went to Nara Prefecture, and this year they should also go to counties near Mie Prefecture.

"Azhe, do you know where to go?"

"have no idea."

"Then where do you want to go?"

After thinking for a while, Tetsu Nishino replied: "I kind of want to go to Osaka to visit. There are quite a few teams there."

Hakusan High School has basically won the recent practice matches. Tetsu Nishino can't tell how much the team's strength has improved. It would be great if they could play against strong teams from other prefectures.

"Then I'll ask."

Nishino Kazuya simply went directly to ask Kato Monamei.

Soon he came back and said with a smile: "Hey, we are going to Shiga Prefecture."

Tetsu Nishino didn't really care that things looked the same wherever he went.
Chapter completed!