"The savior of Seido High School Baseball Team, Miyuki Kazuya!"
"The embodiment of a monster, Tokyo's strongest hitter, Azuma Kiyokuni."
"The unsung hero of Seido High School…"
After the interviews with Baseball Kingdom and Baseball Weekly, the content of the reports was largely similar. In the extensive coverage, Miyuki and Azuma Kiyokuni accounted for nearly eighty percent of the focus.
The remaining twenty percent mainly introduced the overall strength of the Seido High School Baseball Team, with brief mentions of other players.
Even within that portion, Azuma Kiyokuni and Miyuki still occupied a disproportionate amount of space.
Of course, players such as Hidezawa, Yuuki, and Zhang Han were also mentioned occasionally.
However, compared to the protagonist-like treatment of those two, the descriptions of the three were much simpler.
They looked more like supporting characters.
"This is too unfair!"
Some people within the team felt indignant on behalf of those three.
In terms of contribution, Azuma Kiyokuni and Miyuki were certainly important, but Hidezawa, Yuuki, and Zhang Han were no less critical to the team's success.
Was it really appropriate to reduce them to little more than background figures?
The three people involved, however, remained calm.
They trained as usual and focused entirely on preparing for Koshien, as if they had not taken the reports to heart at all. Their attitude instead earned admiration from the teammates who felt angry for them.
No wonder they were core players.
Look at their focus. How could their strength not continue to improve?
As for those who constantly argued over small matters, how could they ever accomplish anything?
In reality, those teammates were mistaken.
The reason the three seemed indifferent was partly due to their personalities.
More importantly, Coach Kataoka and the coaching staff had already explained the situation to them in advance.
Azuma Kiyokuni was planning to enter the draft, and many professional teams had already shown interest in him. As the parent team, Seido High School naturally needed to support him.
Public promotion was part of that responsibility.
As for Hidezawa and Yuuki, the situation was different.
Hidezawa had not yet decided whether to enter the draft or attend university. Only after making that decision would the school consider whether to promote him.
Yuuki was only a second-year and did not have a strong desire to pursue professional baseball. As a result, the team did not invest many resources in promoting him.
Besides the upperclassmen, Seido also needed a representative among the underclassmen to symbolize the team's future vitality.
That person would inevitably be either Miyuki or Zhang Han.
Compared to Miyuki, Zhang Han still had many complicated matters to resolve, so his exposure was postponed.
Based on these considerations, the team decided to promote Azuma Kiyokuni and Miyuki first.
Therefore, although the outside world felt indignant on their behalf, the three themselves understood the reasoning.
In the following week, the team underwent closed special training.
The intensity was not particularly high, but it was highly targeted.
Koshien matches were dense and demanding, requiring excellent physical endurance. Under such circumstances, no team dared to overtrain, for fear of exhausting their players.
Maintaining form through regular practice was enough.
At the same time, the coaching staff focused on preparing countermeasures for potential opponents.
During this period, Coach Kataoka noted his concerns about Zhang Han's game state in his training records.
Feeling that written notes were not enough, he later called Zhang Han to his office for a proper conversation.
"Director, you wanted to see me?"
Zhang Han was usually not very talkative.
Except with teammates he was close to, he rarely engaged in long conversations. Most of the time, he limited himself to greetings.
However, he was always polite.
Although he did not bow deeply like some others, he nodded respectfully and spoke with courtesy, never giving the impression of arrogance.
Because of this, even though he did not interact much with the senior players, his relationship with them was quite good.
At least, it was far better than Miyuki's.
"Sit down."
"Yes."
At Kataoka's instruction, Zhang Han sat down across from him without hesitation, waiting quietly.
"This is your tournament record," Kataoka said. "Your batting average is currently .520. That is very good."
"Thank you."
Zhang Han did not act overly modest.
A batting average above .500 in high school baseball was outstanding. Even compared to Azuma Kiyokuni and Yuuki, it was not inferior.
Pretending otherwise would have been hypocritical.
"I'm not praising you," Kataoka continued. "Judging purely by the numbers, your performance is excellent, even comparable to Azuma. But you should not forget that this is your first major tournament, and many opponents are unfamiliar with you. That gave you an advantage. Once everyone becomes familiar with your style and weaknesses, maintaining such results will not be easy."
Zhang Han nodded.
Even if he was reluctant to admit it, he understood that this was an undeniable truth.
"I didn't call you here to criticize you," Kataoka said. "I want to understand why you gave up so many chances to get hits."
"Perhaps I couldn't bear it," Zhang Han answered honestly. "The opponents were already in such a miserable state and had no ability to turn things around. I felt it was wrong to keep pressing them. Even though I knew that mindset was incorrect, I still acted on it subconsciously."
Kataoka had not expected such a straightforward answer.
He stared at Zhang Han, trying to see through him.
In the end, he saw nothing unusual.
Zhang Han still looked harmless and sincere.
"Friendship first, competition second. Is that a saying from where you come from?" Kataoka asked. "I don't agree with it. Since it's a competition, there will be winners and losers. As long as you don't violate your conscience or the rules, all means are acceptable in pursuit of victory."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"The end of a game is not decided by how large the score difference is. This is one of the key differences between baseball and other sports. Baseball has no time limit. As long as the game isn't over, the losing side still has a chance. The true end only comes when one side gives up or when the final out is recorded."
Zhang Han listened carefully.
The words were deep and enlightening.
In the past, he often found it difficult to be ruthless when holding a large lead.
Now, he understood the consequence.
If he continued like this, it would directly affect his batting average and, more importantly, his mentality.
On the field, there was only victory or defeat.
There was no room for sympathy.
True opponents did not want mercy.
Those who wanted you to hold back were not true opponents.
"I understand," Zhang Han said. "Thank you, Coach."
After a week of closed training, the Seido High School players boarded the team's dedicated bus and set off for Hyogo Prefecture.
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