Day 3 - Game 2 - Koujyoukan Koukou vs. Chiba Keizai Koukou

Game 2 of the Bracket of Death had newcomer Kojyokan of Okayama versus new tournament regular Chiba Keizai.

And from the beginning it was an uphill battle for Kojyokan. Chiba ace Saitoh was mowing down batter after batter, getting 9 of the first 12 outs via the strikeout.

Chiba wasn't fairing much better with its offense. But in the 4th, Chiba would break out in a big way. RF Inaba would start with a grounder screaming into left-center field, hustling for 2. LF Naitoh would walk. And it looked like C Tani would push them along to scoring position. But on a 1-0 count, he pulls back the bat and slaps one through the left side against the bunt defense and Inaba scores! CF Gamoh would walk to load the bases, and still no out! 1B Kubota would then single to left scoring one, and P Saitoh would drive in another with a sacrifice fly to right to give Chiba Keizai the 3-0 lead.

That would be more than enough for Saitoh. Kojyokan would only have one good scoring chance in the game. In the 7th, they would have runners at 1st and 2nd with no out. PH Terachi would ground a ball up the middle, just out of the reach of the 2B and SS. The trailing runner, PH Sakamoto, motored for 3rd, but lead runner Ueki had stopped halfway towards home! Seeing this, CF Gamoh rifles the ball in and gets Ueki caught in a rundown. While there would be runners at 2nd and 3rd afterwards, there were now 2 outs and Kojyokan could not cash it in.

Chiba Keizai would cruise into the next round with a 3-0 win as P Saitoh K's 13 and yields only 7 singles.