Today the 81st National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament (第81回選抜高等学校野球大会：dai hachijuikkai senbatsu koto gakko yakyu taikai) began at the Hanshin Koshien kyujo(阪神甲子園球場：Hanshin Koshien Stadium) in Hyogo (兵庫) prefecture. High school baseball (高校野球: koko yakyu) is very popular in Japan. There are two big national tournaments: one in spring and the other in summer. Spring tournament is abbreviated as senbatsu (センバツ), and often known as haru no taikai (春の大会：spring meeting), haru no koko yakyu (春の高校野球: spring high school baseball), or haru no koshien (春の甲子園: spring Koshien). In this tournament 32 invited high school teams take part in. After the opening ceremony this morning, there were three games. If everything goes well, the championships will be played on April 1.
National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament started in 1924. In those days there were four games in a day. But now there are usually three games in a day. If the game is not finished by 15th innings, they will play again next day or two days later. Usually there are 32 teams, but on memorial meetings such as last year there were 36 teams. In any case the only chosen few players can play at Koshien. Therefore if they lose the game, they bring back the soil of the Koshien as souvenir.
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