高校野球 (Kokoyakyu)

Day 7, where the final teams take the field, and the ones that won begin to return. There are only 2 spots left in Day 11 to draw into, perhaps one of these teams will go there and get one extra day rest? Or do you take Day 10 and get the extra day if you win?

Karatsu Shougyou (Saga)
RF Inoue Jyukiya (井上 樹希也)
3B Yamazaki Haruki (山崎 遥稀)
LF Okamoto Akira (岡本 晃)
1B Hyakutake Taisei (百武 泰成)
C Tooriyama Shouichi (通山 正一)
SS Yokoyama Kaito (横山 魁人)
P Taniguchi Yuusei (谷口 優成)
CF Hirakawa Shouya (平川 将也)
2B Maeda Kaisei (前田 海成)

Kisaradzu Sougou (Chiba)
2B Koike Kouki (小池 航貴)
CF Kido Ryou (木戸 涼)
SS Minemura Takaki (峯村 貴希)
RF Toriumi Ranma (鳥海 嵐万)
1B Yamashita Hikaru (山下 輝)
LF Hosoda Yuuki (細田 悠貴)
3B Inoue Mizuki (井上 瑞樹)
P Hayakawa Takahisa (早川 隆久)
C Oozawa Shou (大沢 翔)

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08:00 - First Pitch!

It is perhaps not surprising that early on, Hayakawa is dictating proceedings. as he carried a 9+ K/9 rate through the Chiba taikai. As for Taniguchi it's a different story as he was basically depending on pitching to contact and a good defense.

It shows up in the bottom of the 2nd where Toriumi leads proceedings for Kisaradzu Sougou with a single to right. After the obligatory bunt, Hosoda singles to right, scoring Toriumi to make it 1-0. Then comes a single from Inoue and Hayakawa scoring one more for 2-0. That's all they score, but it seems like it's going to be one of those days.

On the other hand Hayakawa was breezing through the first couple of innings, recording 5 of the first 6 outs via the K. He does hit #9 batter Maeda in the 3rd, but is reprieved when Oosawa completes a strike em out throw em out double play.

Okamoto gets the first base hit for Karatsu Shougyou in the 4th, but is immediately picked off by Hayakawa. and any thoughts of mounting a rally are squashed.

Meanwhile, Taniguchi appears to be settling down after the 1st. I noticed that his delivery seems rather short. As if he's pitching out of the stretch all the time.

The other thing is what Yoshitomi-kantoku is doing for Karatsu Shougyou. First he subs out his cleanup batter for #13 Utsukoshi. Then in the top of the 5th he pinch hits #10 Kawasaki for Tooriyama. Seems an odd thing to do with the middle of your lineup.

But the moves don't seem to be doing anything on offense, as his side is retired in order in the 5th, 6th and now 7th innings with very little signs of hope as Hayakawa reached double digits in Ks.

Now, Taniguchi is at least doing his part. It's not dominant for sure, but he certainly holding his own -bending in putting runners on base, but not breaking in giving runs. The 6th was a good example when he allowed a 1 out hit to Yamashita and then a 2 out walk to Inoue before getting Hayakawa to fly out.

But no matter what he does at this point, if his team can't get base hits and score runs it's all moot. Now Taniguchi gets Karatsu Shougyou's 2nd hit in the 8th, but it's with 2 out. And with Hirakawa grounding to 3rd, it's wiped off the board.

That's really all she wrote. Hayakawa would end up with 12 strikeouts giving up just 2 hits on the day. It's about as easy as it could get outside of relieving him so that he could get rest.

And they'll need it because they've drawn Shuugakukan creating a rematch of the Haru Koushien where Shuugakukan came back in the bottom of the 9th to win 2-1.