Thank you for your enthusiastic support for The Fighters this season. Next season, we will be aiming to win the league championship for the first time in 10 years, and Nishikawa will be returning to Hokkaido for the first time in five years. Nishikawa and I are in the same year and are in the same grade. We are both right-handed pitcher left-handed hitter, so we have been competing with each other since our first year.

When he was younger, he wasn't getting the results he wanted in a night game for the second team, and the two of us would swing bats together indoors in Kamagaya until the next day. He has a serious and hard-working personality. I've seen him not go home until he was satisfied with his performance. Now that he's experienced playing for another team, I'm excited to see him show us a new "Nishikawa Haruki" while still respecting the current The Fighters. number is the same "7" as five years ago. He humbly said, "I'll wear it," but I believe it's because he himself made number "7" bigger that he has the chance to wear it again. I look forward to seeing Nishikawa shine even more in this uniform.

Next season, not only will Nishikawa join the team, but pitcher Shimamoto will also join from Hanshin Tigers, and we will also have more players born in the same year as us, such as pitcher Takashi Kato and pitcher. Because The Fighters have many young players, I feel that the team's strength will increase significantly if players over 30 perform well. I would like to pay even more attention to players of the same year next season.

Next season will mark the fourth year since F Village opened. I have been introducing various things in this column since before it opened, but it is still not complete. I hope you will look forward to F Village continuing to evolve. This will be the final installment, but thank you for reading my column in Sports Hochi. I hope you will continue to support The Fighters enthusiastically next year! (Taniguchi Yuya) = End =