It has been less than a week since a group of student-athletes from Hanamaki, Japan, took to the diamond at Lakeside to play in the inaugural Sister City Classic.
The idea for the game started a year ago when Lakeside assistant superintendent Bruce Orr made an off-hand comment about players from Higashi High School, the sister school to Lakeside, playing a game of baseball against area players.
By the time the school planned its return trip, 20 baseball players were among the students who were to visit Arkansas for a week, and the Sister City Classic was to be a reality.
Coaches from both Higashi and Lakeside were impressed with the visit and admitted that their players improved their skills due to the trip.
During the week, Higashi and Lakeside players visited the University of Central Arkansas, where Higashi coach Hiroshi Sasaki led a traditional Japanese baseball practice, walking the Lakeside players through the drills to which his players are accustomed.
On Wednesday Lakeside head coach Leighton Hardin led one of the Rams' standard practices, teaching the Higashi players their normal drills.
The two teams ran through both practice routines on Thursday at Henderson State University, and Hardin said that while the Tuesday and Wednesday practices were slower than usual, Thursday's practice was much faster.
By Saturday when the two teams met for the Sister City Classic, the two teams were going through drills with each other, alternating fielders between teams and their backups. The speed at which the players were running through the warm-ups was impressive, appearing that the two teams had been running these drills for weeks, not days.
There was plenty for the players on both teams to learn, and there were plenty of new situations that were encountered.
For instance, it is likely that none of the Hot Springs or Lakeside players who were on the diamond Saturday had ever faced a pitcher who delivers the ball submarine-style.
For those unfamiliar with the style of pitching, instead of a traditional overhand or sidearm pitch, the pitcher bends at the waist to almost 90 degrees and releases the pitch near the ground with an upward motion. The ball spins forward and toward the pitching arm's side, making the motion of the ball even more deceptive.
While no plans have been set in stone as to the game being continued, the coaches agreed that this would be something they would like to see happen.
"It's been a great experience for everyone," Hardin said. "It feels like they're really part of our team now because we've been together for a week doing the same things, and it didn't really feel like we're playing each other."
Even Bryan Bolt, a former Lakeside assistant coach who coached the game due to restrictions on the Hot Springs and Lakeside coaches by the Arkansas Activities Association, was impressed with the skills that he saw and the improvement in the players.
"It was great competition between both squads," he said. "Both teams had great energy the whole game -- a lot of good pitching, a lot of good defense, a lot of good hitting. And that's what you like to see in a game, and the final score showed it."
If you missed the game last Saturday, Higashi defeated the team comprised of Hot Springs and Lakeside players 16-7. Apart from two innings where one of the Higashi pitchers who pitched submarine-style caught the local players off guard, the game was much closer than the final score indicated.
To be honest, I would not be upset about watching this game every December.
Who knows? Maybe this will become a regular occurrence. I for one look forward to the announcement.
Sports on 12/13/2019