A semiprofessional baseball club is preparing for the 2016 season with determination to live up to its name as it continues to inspire people in the Tohoku region ravaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The Fukushima Hopes, which was established two years ago, does not have a specific home and instead regards the whole of Tohoku as its ballpark.

The team joined the Route-Inn BC League, an independent semiprofessional baseball league formerly known as the Baseball Challenge League, last year. Led by former Major League Baseball player Akinori Iwamura, 37, as player-manager, it won the second stage of the 2015 season but lost to the first-stage winner in the championship playoff.

Players are determined to go one better in 2016 as they continue their mission to bring hope and smiles to disaster survivors, including children unable to play outdoors as much as they want in the fallout of the nuclear reactor meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant.

Iwamura was playing for the Sendai-based Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in the Pacific League when the region was hit by the disaster.

“Reconstruction (in Tohoku) has yet to make headway,” Iwamura said. “All we can do is to play hard for people who come to see our games.”

Players are well aware that hits and stolen bases do not define their performances — their play has greater significance to the community. Shiima Kuki, a 19-year-old catcher from Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, said, “I want to encourage victims through my baseball.”

Outfielder Takumi Nagamine, 19, from Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, said, “We want to play well so that spectators return home with smiles on their faces.”

The Route-Inn BC League adopted its name in 2014 after Japan Baseball Marketing, which operates the league, concluded a naming rights deal with national hotel chain operator Route-Inn Group.

The league, which began play in 2007 as the Hokushinetsu Baseball Challenge League, currently consists of eight teams based in the Kanto, Hokuriku and Shinetsu regions. Players hold down jobs in the off-season as they are only paid by team sponsors during the season.

The 2016 season opens on Saturday, and the Fukushima Hopes begin their second championship tilt knowing that their play, as well as their name, means everything to those they represent.