高校こうこう野球やきゅう 夏なつの甲子園こうしえん開幕かいまく 史上しじょう初はじめて夕方ゆうがたに開会かいかい式しき実施じっしへ

The National High School Baseball Championship will open at Koshien Stadium on the 5th.

As part of measures against the heat, the opening ceremony will be held in the evening for the first time in history, and for the first six days of the tournament, a two-part system will be implemented, with matches divided between the morning and evening.

This year marks the 107th Summer National High School Baseball Championship, which will be held at Koshien Stadium, with 49 representative schools that have won their regional tournaments participating.

Yokohama High School from Kanagawa, which won the Spring Senbatsu High School Baseball Tournament, will aim for their second consecutive spring and summer championships—their first since 1998, when they had ace pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.

In addition, Kyoto International High School, which won the tournament for the first time last year, is aiming to become only the seventh school in history to win consecutive championships.

The five schools making their first appearance are Ei-Mei High School from Saitama, Mirai High School Toyama, Seirei Christopher High School from Shizuoka, Toyohashi Chuo High School from Aichi, and Ayaha High School from Shiga, all of which are participating for the first time in either the spring or summer tournaments.

This year, in an effort to reduce the burden on athletes due to the heat, the opening ceremony will be held in the evening for the first time ever. On the first day of the tournament, August 5th, only the opening game will be played, starting at 5:30 p.m. right after the ceremony.

Except for the first and fourth days of the tournament, a two-part system dividing the games into morning and evening sessions will be used for four matches up to the sixth day.

If the game goes beyond the scheduled time, it will, in principle, be suspended and resumed from the point it was stopped on the following day or later as a continued game.

The tournament will be held over 18 days, which is one day longer than last year, including three rest days.