A year in Japan!: East-Japan Championship

This week my team and I, went to the north part of Akita prefecture to participate in the East-Japan Championship. It's was a 3hours drive so we spend the weekend in a lovely hotel, with a real size bed and non rice bag pillow.

Hotel Room

This tournament, brought together the 4 best university teams in Akita prefecture to compete against each other. The winner would go to the Japan Championship in Tokyo and represent Akita prefecture.
Our first game was against the other university of Akita, I pitched the entire game for a 4 to 3 loss. They jump right at me, by hitting a Inside the Park home run on the first pitch I threw...

After getting settled I threw a good game (9inn, 9h, 1BB, 8K) but unfortunately in 2012, wins have been pretty rare for me. Only 5 wins this season with two being the biggest wins in my career. I also batted 1for5 in this game, but the only time I got to second, got picked off!!! Hard to understand "shortstop is behind you" in Japanese.

In the bottom of the ninth base loaded, 2outs, losing by one... Guess who the next batter is?? Me of course!
I don't think I have ever been a stressed in my entire life. With one swing I could become a hero! In my head I was think be cool, take it easy, you can do these. But I had a voice tell me "go for it kid swing for the home run!!"
I hit a fly ball to right field, I could see the ball falling. A smile started growing on my face... but he dove and caught it. GAME OVER...

So that night, some of the boys and I decided to go to the batting cages to practise our batting.

2€ for 20 balls, different pitcher with different speed!

Our next game was against Hirosaki University, a team we had beaten 2 weeks ago. My batting practise paid of batting 3for3 with a triple ;) Unfortunately we lost 7 to 4 and all hope of going to Tokyo where gone. Hirosaki University went on to win the tournament.

Baseball season is over for me. It's been a good year, with two amazing experiences. Time to putt the glove away until April.