Day 11 - Game 1 – Heian Koukou (Kyoto) vs. Seibou Gakuen (Saitama)

As the day begins on the best 8, the trek continues for Heian Koukou. Having to play 2 to advance could take its toll on the team. Seibou Gakuen has shown they have offense as they outbattled Riseisha 7-5 to advance. Does Heian have anything left in the tank?

Heian
3B Marumoto
2B Aoki
CF Yamaguchi
LF Kobayashi
C Kodama
SS Kouno
RF Aratake
1B Fukuda
P Kawaguchi

Seibou Gakuen
CF Etou
SS Onagi
1B Kido
RF Sekiguchi
P Ootsuka
LF Chikada
C Haramo
3B Murata
2B Takayama

It doesn’t look good for Heian early. 2 K’s in the first, then another 2 in the 2nd. And then in the bottom of the 2nd with two down...

Haramo doubles to left center, Murata singles through the right side, and to top it off Takayama walks to load the bases. Things don’t look good, and for good reason. Etou singles through the right side. Haramo scores, Murata heads home. Kobayashi makes his throw and it’s terribly off line allowing Takayama to come home as well and Etou to advance to 2nd. Onagi hits a liner over Kawaguchi for good measure to score one more.

And Seibou puts the hammer down the very next inning. Looking to stem the tide, Heian sends in Yasuda to replace Kawaguchi. It doesn’t help. After a groundout to first, Ootsuka walks. Then a single to right and then one to center loads the bases. After getting Murata to strikeout he looks to get out of the inning, But Takayama shoots one through the right side. Aratake comes to get it but somehow loses it, turns around and around, allowing a second runner to score. Etou again delivers with the big hit, driving the ball to deep right center for a bases clearing triple. 8-0 means the end for Heian. They’re simply too tired and overpowered by the Seibou squad. Seibou for their part, take the rest of the game relatively easy and cruise to the 8-0 win.


Player Lines
Ootsuka (Seibou) - W, 8.2IP, 0ER, 2H, 11K ,2BB
Etou (Seibou) - 2-4, 3B, R, 4RBI, 2K
Harumo (Seibou) - 3-4, 2B