Day 8 - Game 2 - Nagano Nihon Koukou (Nagano) vs. Kita Ootsu Koukou (Shiga)

Game 2 features Nagano Nihon, who defeated a good Imabari Nishi squad, and Kita Ootsu who’s already played 2 matches, defeating Touhoku of Miyagi and more surprisingly Yokohama. Now these teams square off for a chance in the round of 8.

Nagano Nihon
SS Ikeda
2B Chino
3B Itou
1B Kobayashi
C Ishikawa
LF Arai
CF Nagato
RF Koide
P Uemura

Kita Ootsu
SS Asami
LF Houki
RF Tatsuda
2B Ishikawa
C Kaneda
3B Hashimoto
1B Migaki
P Kawai
CF Okada

The teams scuffle early on, with no team really getting anything started. Then in the 3rd, Uemura leads off the inning for Nagano Nihon reaching on an error by Asami as he bobbles the ball. But with the count 1-1 to Ikeda, he’s caught napping by Kaneda and is thrown out after a snap throw! Asami gets that base runner back though as he bloops one down the 1st base line. On the very first pitch to Houki, Asami takes 2nd! And then with the count 2-2, he steals 3rd! To top it off, Houki puts on the suicide squeeze to score Asami and give Nagano Nihon the 1-0 lead!

Kita Ootsu looks to reply in the bottom half of the inning. With one down, Kawai doubles to right center. Okada singles to left, but can’t score Kawai. Then with Asami up and a 0-1 count, Okada was able to steal 2nd after there was some confusion on Nagano Nihon’s side. Asami though grounds to Ikeda at short. But inexplicably, Okada was heading for 3rd... while Kawai was still at 3rd! With the miscommunication, Okada is tagged out! And Houki grounds out to short to end the inning.

After the 3rd, the teams continue to scuffle. Neither team can get anything going, teams going down in order inning after inning.

Bottom 7 though, Kita Ootsu gets another good chance. Kaneda doubles down the right field line with one out. He advances to 3rd when Hashimoto grounds to Uemura. He’s 90 feet away for Takahashi, who replaced Migaki at 1st. Ahead in the count 3-1, he hits a liner down the 3rd base line… but Itou leaps and makes the catch! That’s one heck of a leaping catch and he preserves the 1-0 lead!

And after that, Kita Ootsu looked to have given up on the game. They had few opportunities and couldn’t take advantage of those that they had. Nagano Nihon tacks on another run in the 9th to advance with a 2-0 win.


Player Lines
Kobayashi (Nagano) - 2-4, R
Nagato (Nagano) - 2-4
Uemura (Nagano) - W, CG, 0ER, 4H, 4K, 2BB
Kaneda (Kita Ootsu) - 1-4, 2B
Kawai (Kita Ootsu) - 1-2, 2B, BB
Kawai (Kita Ootsu) – L, CG, 2ER, 6H, 6K, 6BB