2025年6月15日（日）、午前11時半に起きた。昼過ぎに家を出て、明治神宮野球場に向かった。
全日本大学野球選手権の決勝戦を観戦した。対戦したのは、東北福祉大学と福井工業大学。今年の組み合わせは、例年と違う様相を呈している。一般的に関東・関西地方、特に首都圏の大学が強く、それらの地域の大学が多くの年で、決勝に進むからだ。
東北福祉大学が優勝した。8対1の完勝だ。先発した櫻井頼之介投手は完投し、打者陣は2本塁打を含む15本のヒットを放った。ホームランを打ったのは6番打者の松本大輝選手と、途中出場した小島慎也選手。選手層の厚さを見せつける結果となった。ちなみにこの2人は2日前の試合でも、私の前で本塁打を打っている。
今回の選手権全体で、私は今日を含め計7試合を観戦した。そこで気付いたのは、大学野球を観るなら東京ドームよりも神宮球場の方が楽しいということだ。東京ドームは気温が安定していたり、座席が柔らかかったり、快適ではあるけれど、なぜだか神宮球場で観る方が面白く感じる。
On Sunday, June 15th, 2025, I got up around 11:30 a.m. and left home at 12:30 p.m. to go to Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo.
At the stadium, I watched a baseball game between Tohoku Fukushi University in Miyagi Prefecture and Fukui University of Technology in Fukui Prefecture. It was the final of the Japan National Collegiate Baseball Championship. This year’s final featured a matchup that was quite different from usual, because universities from the Kanto Region, especially around Tokyo, or from the Kansai Region are typically more competitive and often reach the final.
This year, Tohoku Fukushi University won the game 8–1. Yorinosuke Sakurai, the starting pitcher, tossed a complete game, and the team’s batters collected 15 hits, including two home runs. Surprisingly, the home runs were hit by the sixth batter in the lineup and by a player who entered the game as a substitute, rather than by hitters in the first five spots of the starting lineup. Additionally, both of them had also homered in the previous game I watched two days earlier.
Throughout the championship held from last Monday, I watched seven games over three days and realized that I prefer Meiji Jingu Stadium to Tokyo Dome for watching college baseball games. Although staying inside the dome is very comfortable because of its stable temperature and soft seats, watching baseball at Meiji Jingu Stadium was more exciting.