Sota Fujinaka, Tomoya Sawano, and Shin Fujihira will participate in the All-Japan University Semi-Hardball Tournament to decide the best player in Japan between East and West in Koshien!

The All Japan Collegiate Semi-Hardball Baseball Federation held a press conference on September 28 and announced that it will hold a national tournament at Koshien Stadium for the first time in the federation on November 13. The tournament will be held by selecting 25 players from each of the East and West teams from among the 272 universities and nearly 10,000 players who are members of the federation. Tomoya Sawano (3rd year, baseball) and Souta Fujinaka (2nd year, baseball) will participate as players, and Shin Fujihira (4th year, baseball) will participate as a team staff member.

In addition to revitalizing and promoting the collegiate semi-hardball game, this tournament will be held to provide former high school baseball players who were unable to participate in the National High School Baseball Championship (Koshien) in the summer of 2020 due to the spread of the new strain of coronavirus with the opportunity to play at Koshien Stadium.

Sawano, who is scheduled to participate as a player, was a catcher at Kokushikan High School during his high school years and contributed to the team's appearance in the top 8 of the 2018 Meiji Jingu Tournament and the 2019 Spring Invitational Tournament. After entering the University, he has continued to lead the team by starting many games as the key to the team's success. In the summer of 2020, Fujinaka led his Naruto High School team to the Tokushima Prefecture Tournament championship with a fastest fastball speed of 142 km/h. He entered the university on the strength of his performance. After entering the university, he contributed to the team's back-to-back Spring Six University League championships in 2021 and 2022 as an immediate asset to the team.

The tournament will be broadcast live online, so please be sure to tune in to see the performances of Tohei, Sawano, and Fujinaka.