Soukei sen

It is always very crowded at the soukei sen

Waseda's cheerleaders

Waseda's flag

Waseda supporters cheering

My friends and I also did our best to support Waseda :)

Waseda batter

The new and very famous pitcher Saitoh!
However, this being his first year at Waseda university
he did unfortunately not take part in the game today :(

Friends and I cheering

Unfortunately Waseda lost against Keio with 3-7 :(

070602, Saturday

Today it was time again for the prestigious baseball game between the rivalry universities Waseda and Keio. My friends and I went to the soukei sen last year as well, when Waseda won. However, it took 12 innings to beat Keio. Having had a blast last time we were really looking forward for today! Just like last time the atmosphere was great!! We were able to enter the stadium a bit past 10. Until the game started, at 1 o'clock, we were all singing songs to get in the right mood. It was great fun!! :) The weather was also great, the sun was shining practically the whole time without being covered by any clouds, so we all got a suntan too :) Waseda has a new and very famous pitcher named Saitoh. We were all very eager to see him play but since he is new all we got to see of him was during warm-up. I have seen him on TV and was very much looking forward to seeing him play live but unfortunately that did not happen. However, we got to see him live so that at least was a big treat :) The game started and unfortunately Waseda did not perform well today. The batters were not able to hit while Keio did much better. It was 0-0 until the 2nd inning, but in the 3rd Keio scored 5 points! Unfortunately Waseda continued with their poor play and was not able to get a point whereas Keio scored yet another point in the 6th and one more point in the 8th making the score 7-0 to Keio :( In the ninth inning Keio was not able to score a point so now this was the last chance for Waseda to redeem their pride. Like a gift sent from above Waseda scored 3 points! With two outs and one player each at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd base there was a lot of pressure on the batter. If he was to hit a homerun the score would suddenly change from 3-7 to 7-7! Everyone was hoping for the best but unfortunately the batter got 3 strikes and the game was over :( The game ended at about 3.40. This time Waseda unfortunately lost against Keio with 3-7. However, I have to admit that Keio did perform better today so they deserved to win. But still, it hurts to lose :( Nevertheless, we had a great time today and the soukei sen is definitely one of my most precious memories from my stay in Japan :)