Meet the first girl to hit fungoes at the Koshien School Tournament

Yuna Nagano walked to the plate holding her bat to thunderous applause at Koshien Stadium here on March 22. One after another, she hit balls during pregame field practice, making history as the first girl to serve as a fungo hitter (warm-up for receiving balls) in the national high school baseball tournament.

The third-year student and assistant team member from Tokushima Prefectural Joto High School was helping out during practice on the field at the annual championship, which was held throughout the spring and summer.

After skillfully finishing his fungo by batting in front of the large crowd, he changed into his school uniform and watched the game from the dugout.

Although his school ultimately lost 5-2 to Tokai University Sugao High School, he said it was still a great day. “Everybody was smiling and happy today,” he said. “I’m pleased because the fielding practice was also nice.”

Nagano was not always interested in sports. She said that she had joined an orchestra club in high school and was initially not good at sports. But Kaito Moriomto, the captain of the high school baseball club, asked him if he could help with the team, since he was having trouble with dwindling members, so he decided to sign up.

His team eventually made it to the semifinals in the autumn prefectural tournament, despite the fact that the club only had 12 players. They earned a special place in the selection for the spring national tournament reserved for schools like those who overcome difficulties. Joto High School has been struggling with a lack of team members and Nagano helped the team by hitting fungoes during practice.

The girls are a relatively recent addition to the baseball diamond at the national tournament. Members of the high school baseball clubs were allowed to participate in the summer national tournaments for the first time last year by helping with fielding practice, such as passing the ball to the fungoe hitter and picking up the balls. foul balls

They were not expected to hit fungoes at the time. But they stepped up at this year’s spring national tournament.

When Nagano joined his school’s baseball club, he started out slowly, making drinks for the players and throwing balls to batters during batting practice. He gradually learned the rules while making notes on the scorecard.

In April of his second year, he saw a player hitting fungoes as the team’s manager, 35-year-old Ryosuke Shinji, and some of the team members were absent. “I couldn’t practice fielding today,” the player complained. Nagano then looked around and realized, “I’m the only one who can hit fungoes”, and decided to step up.

She volunteered to train with players starting at 7 am. He began by rolling up newspapers and hitting them with a bat. He continued with batting practice every morning and quickly blistered his hands to show for it.

She said that since many students in her high school go to national and public universities, she continued to study hard because she “didn’t want to use the club activity as an excuse” to slack off. Last fall, it became a habit for her to study for an hour in the classroom starting at 6 am.

Her high school life turned out to be very different from what she had imagined: going to cafes and enjoying fashion. Instead, she was always tired and her arms were constantly sore. But he said he has no regrets. “I think I’m enjoying my youth more than anyone,” Nagano said.

On the same day, Sakura Nishihara, a female assistant for the Yamaguchi Prefectural Hikari High School baseball team, also handed out balls to the person who hit the fungoes before her team’s game during the spring national tournament in Koshien.