高校野球 (Kokoyakyu)

I'm working on getting my team database together to translate the fall tournament brackets faster. In the meantime, I'll go ahead and explain the fall tournament.

As we know the Haru Koshien (i.e. Spring Koshien, Senbatsu) is an invitational tournament.

The question is, how are the invitations handed out?

Well, they are given out based upon the results of the fall tournament. But unlike the Natsu Koshien, each prefecture doesn't get a bid. Instead, regions get bids. Mandatory bids are as follows:

• Hokkaido - 1
• Tohoku - 2
• Kanto (ex Tokyo) - 4
• Tokyo - 1
  
• Hokushinetsu - 2
• Tokai - 2
• Kinki - 6
• Chuugoku - 2
• Shikoku - 2
• Kyushu - 4

That makes 26. Then there are 3 "flex" bids that are distributed to wherever the committee sees fit (but one max per region), and then the final 3 bids are given to what are 21st century teams.

21st century teams are a way to give teams who may get close to qualifying a chance to compete. A team from each prefecture is nominated around November-December. Then each region nominates one of those nominees to the selection committee by December 15th. Finally, the committee selects the three 21st century teams.

There is one catch. The 21st century team cannot be from a region that has received a "flex" bid. Therefore, 6 of the 10 regions will receive an extra bid.

So that's the high level summary. Let's delve down further.

Well, each region has their own tournament. And in general they take the top finishers from each prefecture and put them in semi-seeded brackets to determine the winner. Some prefectures will get more bids in the regionals than others.

Within each prefecture their qualifiers can vary. Most at the top have a traditional single elimination bracket. But to get to that bracket, some have area round-robin play with winners advancing to the next level. Others give bids to the prefectural brackets via a double, or even triple elimination depending on how many that particular area gets.

So unlike the Natsu Koshien qualifying, losing doesn't always mean you're automatically eliminated.

But because the formats all vary, I may not be able to provide as detailed information as I'd like.


There you have it. And because some regions started fall tournaments while Natsu Koshien was still running, the baseball season literally doesn't stop. You finish the Natsu Koshien qualifying, then turn around and get the new team together and ready for the fall tournament. No wonder why seeing 1st years is rare.

And finally, we have the national fall tournament featuring the winners of each region.

It was a star-studded field - but it looked like there would be an eventual collision between Tenri and Keio in the finals. While Saijyou gave Tenri a run in the semifinals, falling 4-3 in 12 innings, nothing was able to stop the match-up.

The championship game featured offense, and lots of it as the teams scored in just about every inning. However, Tenri would play catch-up the entire game, coming back from a 4-run deficit early and a 2-run deficit later to tie. But they couldn't push the go-ahead run through and when Keio retook the 2-run lead in the 8th inning, Tenri could not respond. Keio would go on to win 8-6 showing that it's recent run is no fluke.

There were stories outside of Tenri and Keio however. The aforementioned Saijyou as well as Mukawa came from the furthest parts of the bracket to make it to the semi-finals. One may want to take a peek at these teams come senbatsu time.

Taking a short flight over to Saga-ken, we hit the final region, the Kyushu Fall Tournament.

And aside from a scare against Fukuokadai Oohori, Seihou (Nagasaki) cruises to the title, shutting out new power Kamimura Gakuen (Kagoshima) 4-0.

A lot of new faces are here in the tournament, but there are still some familiar ones as well. Ogi (Saga) fell to the aforementioned Fukuokadai Oohori 4-3. Meihou (Oita) made it to the semifinals before falling to Seihou 6-2.

More on this later, but it's back to Hanshin Koushien Kyuujyou for the opening of the spring tournament!

Next, we lazily take the Hokuriku line west enjoying the view of the Sea of Japan before heading south to Gifu for the Tokai tournament.

The winner in the 12 team field was Chuukyou Dai Chuukyou (Aichi), defeating Kakegawa Nishi (Shizuoka) handily 5-2 in the final.

Oogaki Nichidai (Gifu) made an appearance here, but lost in the 2nd round to Kakegawa Nishi 2-1, giving up both runs in the bottom of the 9th inning.

Last year's representative from Nishi Aichi, Touhou, lost its first game to Seisei Kougyou (Shizuoka). Behind 3-1, they score 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th before giving up the go-ahead run in the 9th.

Many teams were left out of the tournament.

• In Aichi, the Higashi Aichi counterpart, Oobu, lost in the quarterfinals to Kyouei 6-5.
• Aikodai Meiden, exited in the 3rd round, losing to Aichi Sangyou Dai Kougyou 6-5.
• In Shizuoka, the top seeds from the Koushien qualifyers exited early as Tokoha Kikugawa lost in the 2nd round to Shizuoka Shougyou 5-4, while their counterpart Tokoha Tachibana lost to Shizuoka Gakuen 8-7, also in the 2nd round.
• In Gifu, Kenritsu Gifu Shougyou lost in the 2nd round to Gifu Sougyou 2-1. Shiritsu Gifu Shougyou, lost in the first round to Ikeda 6-1.
  
• And in Mie, Ujiyamada Shougyou lost in the quarterfinals to Mie, 7-5, while Komono lost its first game to Nabari Kikyougaoka 2-1.

Going over to platforms 20-23 at Tokyo-eki, we take the Joetsu Shinkansen north to Niigata for the 119th Hokushinetsu tournament.

And what a championship game it was! Nihon Bunri (Niigata) was facing Toyama Shougyou (Toyama) for the title. Toyama built a commanding 7-1 lead early and was headed for victory, but in the 8th inning down 7-3, Nihon Bunri rallied for 7 runs for a 10-7 comeback win!

Unfortunately, there were not many familiar teams on display in the 16 team field, and the games seemed to indicate a lack of depth in the Hokushinetsu area...

• Tsuruga Kehi (Fukui) - Lost to Niigata's #4 seed Niigata Shougyou 5-3 in the 2nd round.
• Fukui Kodai Fukui (Fukui) - Lost to Nihon Bunri in the semi-finals 10-7.

Doubling back, we hit the Tokyo tournament. In impressive fashion, Kokushikan wins their 5th tournament and first in 6 years by defeating Waseda Jitsugyou 3-1 in the championship.

(Brackets for block play and finals are up. Translations will be done after all regions are completed.)

Kokushikan's victory was impressive in that they fought toe-to-toe with Teikyou in the semifinals, winning 7-5 against a highly offensive-minded team.

Waseda Jitsugyou did not have an easy road to the finals though. In their first game, they had a big inning against Oberlin (yes, that Oberlin), winning 5-2. Next, they were behind 4-2 to Tokyo, but came back with a run in the 8th and the 9th to tie the game up winning 3 innings later with a sayonara hit.

As we take the Shinkansen south, we hit the Kanto region. In what may be a change of power in the area, the championship goes to Keio (Kanagawa) who defeated Narashino (Chiba) 9-6.

(Brackets for the prefectural level and finals are up. I will backtrack to the prefectural regionals once I finish all regional tournaments. )

It wasn't easy though. Keio spotted Narashino 5 runs in the bottom of the 1st! They narrowed the deficit with 2 runs in the 2nd, and 1 in the 3rd. They each traded runs in the 6th, leaving Keio down 6-4 in the 7th. But Narashino couldn't hold off Keio any further. Keio would score 5 runs in the lucky 7th inning to go on to the victory.

This was only Keio's 2nd championship, and first in a whopping 49 years.

The field, which does not include Tokyo as they have their own tournament, surprisingly did not feature Yokohama. In fact, they were defeated in prefectural play by prefectural runner-up Nichidai Fujisawa.

Oddly enough, there were not many well known names in the field this year. Outside of Keio, there was only...

• Nihon Koukuu (Yamanashi) who lost in the first round 5-1 to the only other well known team...
• Maebashi Shougyou (Gunma). They would fall in the semifinals to Keio 8-4.

Heading south to the Tohoku region, the championship game came down to two teams familiar to playing on the big stage - Kousei Gakuin (Aomori) vs. Ichinoseki Gakuin (Iwate).

Kousei had their way with Ichinoseki, giving them the championship 7-1 running away. This is their 2nd championship and first in 12 years.

Spreadsheet link is here. As with the Hokkaido regionals, english translations are available only for the final bracket (With the time constraints I have, it'll be hard to get through all prefectures before the tournament).

The main 18 team field had notable teams such as:

• Seikou Gakuin (Fukushima) who lost to eventual champion Kousei 3-1 in 10 innings in the round of 8. The game was scoreless going into enchousen, but Kousei turned on the scoring in extras.
  
• Hanamaki Higashi (Iwate) who also lost to eventual champions Kousei in the semifinals 6-3.
• Sendai Ikuei (Miyagi) lost to the aforementioned Seikou Gakuin in the 2nd round 4-3 in 12 innings. They were actually leading 3-0 after 6, but Seikou scored 3 in the 7th and 1 in the decisive 12th.
• Aomori Yamada (Aomori) lost in the round of 8 to Ichinoseki Gakuin. The teams traded runs throughout the entire game, but could not get a pitcher to keep Ichinoseki at bay. In all, they used 5 different pitchers to no avail losing 7-5.
• Sakata Minami (Yamagata) lost in the round of 8 to little known Rifu (Miyagi). Down 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th, Sakata Minami ties the game. However, they would fall 2 innings later when Rifu scores the go-ahead run.

I will post brackets after I finish Hokkaido. Needless to say, the information is strewn all about and a bit hard to find.

The first area of fall tournaments that I will be covering is Hokkaido. This will be ongoing as I update the spreadsheet. I'm working from the championship down, so please bear with me.

(As of 1/27 all brackets are up. Translation for teams is done only for the regionals and the Sapporo sub-region.)

The winner of the tournament was Mukawa. This was only their 2nd championship, and 5 years since their first. They defeated Hokkai Gakuen Sapporo in the finals 3-1. What's more impressive was that they were one of the 8 teams that had to play an extra game.

Mukawa also possibly benefited from Hokkai Gakuen Sapporo having to go 11 innings the day before to defeat Hakodate Daifuzoku Yuuto on a sayonara run 3-2.

The 20-team field had many past Koushien participants...

• Komadai Tomakomai fell in the 2nd round of the tournament to Hokushou 5-2, faltering late giving up 4 runs in the 8th in a tie ball game.
  
• Their counterparts, Komadai Iwamizawa made it to the semifinals before falling to Mukawa 14-6. They had gone out to a 6-1 lead in the first 2 innings, but then Mukawa scored 7 runs in the next 2 and never looked back.
  
• Hokkai fell in its first game to Mukawa 7-0.
• Shirakaba Gakuen too fell in its first game to the aforementioned Hakodate Daifuzoku Yuuto 4-1.

The fact that some of the usual suspects in Hokkaido showed up in the tournament means that we could see them come back around in the summer. Remember, these teams are the ones that will be qualifying for next year's Koushien.