Day 1 - Game 2 - Chiben Wakayama vs. Saibi (Ehime)

This should be an interesting game, if nothing more than I think Chiben's offense was a little lacking and could fall to Saibi. But that's why they play the game, now isn't it?

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Chiben Wakayama
SS Urata (6)
RF Shibata (1)
2B Katsuya (4)
1B Sakaguchi (3)
C Morimoto (2)
LF Takahashi (7)
CF Tanbo (8)
P Okada (10)
3B Kitabatake (5)

Saibi (Ehime)
SS Ogata (6)
RF Tahara (3)
LF Oomori (7)
1B Tanaka (5)
CF Sakata (9)
3B Asaoka (14)
2B Ikenaga (4)
P Furukawa (1)
C Matsumoto (2)
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1:46 PM
First Pitch!

Top 1st
Urata and Shibata go down early, but Katsuya lines on off the leaping Asaoka and into left! However, Sakaguchi grounds to short to end the inning.

Bottom 1st
Tahara gets a one out single to left. Oomori bunts him along, and a wild pitch moves him to 3rd! Tanaka works the count full and draws a walk putting Okada in an early pinch. But he gets Sakata to fly to left to end the inning.

Top 2nd
Morimoto lines one up the middle to leadoff! Then after Takahashi squares to bunt the first time, they play a hit and run as he hits one sharply to left! Early trouble for Saibi Koukou now...

Tanbo looked to bunt, but falls behind 0-2. And Furukawa puts him away on a low offspeed pitch. Okada likewise falls behind 1-2 and flies to right. Now it's up to last batter Kitabatake to drive the run in. But he grounds to short and it's still scoreless.

Bottom 2nd
Asaoka draws a leadoff walk, and Ikenaga looks to bunt him along.

On a side note, I LOVE hearing the bands play. And seeing the red C of Chiben Wakayama.

Ah! On a 1-2 count, they pull a hit and run, but Ikenaga is squeezed inside and softly pops it up to Kitabatake who makes the DP at first. It's too bad, as Furukawa walks. That's the 3rd walk already for Okada in the first 2 innings.

But Matsumoto flies to center and the inning is over. Still scoreless, but there have been opportunities on both sides early on.

Top 3rd
Urata strikes out looking on an inside off speed pitch. Furukawa looks to have good control early. Shibata flies to left. Katsuya seems to ground into an inning ending hit to 2nd, but both Tanaka and Ikenaga go after the ball, and the throw by Ikenaga to Furukawa covering is late! And you know about extending an inning... Yes, Sakaguchi drives one to deep left center, and Katsuya scores all the way from first! 1-0.

Sakaguchi gets picked off 2nd, although the actual pickoff by the C, it seemed like Okada was blocking the base, but nevertheless, Chiben takes the early lead!

Bottom 3rd
With 2 down, Oomori singles through the right side. Then Tanaka after falling behind 0-2, ges a walk. Saibi has the tying run in scoring position now. And Okada continues to pitch away. BUt just when you try to cheat for the away pitch, he goes up and in for the K.

Top 4th
Morimoto draws a leadoff walk. Then Takahashi puts down the bunt, and Furukawa can't get a hold of the ball! All safe!! Tanbo almost pops a bunt for an out, and when he does put it down, it too close to the plate and Matsumoto makes the play at 3rd to get the lead runner. Then Okada puts one in center to load the bases.

I wonder if I was wrong about Saibi all along... And I hear Jock Rock from the Chiben band. That's got to be my favorite songs.

But Okada hits one to short, he starts the 6-4-3 DP to end the inning! Wait, no! Okada's safe at 2nd! On the replay, Ikenaga wasn't even close to 2nd. So Takahashi scores and it's 2-0 Chiben.

Oy. Urata walks on a full count to load the bases again. And #10 Miyazaki is warming up for Saibi.

It's 2-0 now to Shibata, and things don't look good at all. Fouled off, 2-1. And a grounder to 2nd ends the innings, but Chiben gets another run.

Bottom 4th
Asaoka pops to short on the first pitch, and Ikenaga strikes out swinging, then Furukawa looking. It's definitely not promising.

See, if nothing else, Chiben always has its defense to fall back on. That's why they can get away with the low scoring games most of the time. And Okada's starting to settle in.

Top 5th
Katsuya at the plate, hits one to the left side, Okada makes the nice stop, but can't make the throw to 1st in time. Then Sakaguchi just nonchalantly lines a low pitch into left for a double. And there's no out.

Takahashi grounds to 2nd!. The runners are caught off the bag! Ikenaga runs Katsuya back to 3rd, as Sakaguchi runs back to 2nd. Ikenaga then runs down Sakaguchi and tags him out! And Katsuya breaks for home! The throw home, and he's out! What a bizarre two outs! What in the world were the runners thinking?!

And Tanbo grounds to 2nd to end the inning. What a gift by Chiben Wakayama!!

Botttom 5th
One out, Okada with a single up the middle. The battery continues to have trouble as Tahara pulls his bunt back and the ball bounces off of Morimoto's gear allowing Okada to advance.

But Tahara flies to right. So now it's up to Oomori. He falls behind 1-2 and strikes out. They strand another runner and it's still 2-0 Chiben.

Top 6th
Chiben continues to try and play add-on. Okada singles up the middle with one down. Kitabatake gets the sac bunt down. The count goes full to leadoff batter Urata and he singles up the middle! Okada scores from 2nd and while the play is going on at home, Urata advances all the way to 3rd! 3-0.

And that's the end for Furukawa. Now the carousel of players start. Sakata goes from CF to P, Furukawa goes from P to 1st, Tanaka goes from 1st to 3rd, Asaoka goes from 3rd to RF, and Tahara goes from RF to CF.

Got that?

Right, because in the time it takes to sort that out, Shibata grounded to short to end the inning.

Bottom 6th
Saibi goes quitely. *sighs*

Don't get me wrong, I like Chiben Wakayama. But I also liked Saibi too.

Top 7th
Ara? After Sakaguchi sends one up the middle with one down, Saibi's manager makes a change. All the players move back to their original positions, with the exception of Furukawa who is replaced by the new P, Miyazaki.

That doesn't help either. After getting Morimoto to fly out to center, he hits Takahashi and walks Tanbo to load the bases.

Thankfully, Miyazaki gets Tanbo to ground to 1st, but does anyone else think that the fielding changes are a bit weird?

Bottom 7th
1-2-3 again. I think Saibi's on the verge here. They're not going deep into counts anymore and going after the first pitch...

Top 8th
Does anyone notice that Miyazaki's pitching motion seems similar to Matsuzaka's?

Oh yeah, and Chiben goes down in order. Saibi's done well to keep Chiben to 3 runs on 12 hits, but that still doesn't change the fact that they're still behind.

Bottom 8th
Tahara gets his 2nd hit and the first for Saibi since the 5th. And there's life! The hit and run is successful! Tahara advances to 3rd and there's runners at the corners! But Tanaka pops up on the first pitch to shallow center...

And #18 Yokoyama goes in to pinch hit for Sakata.

...and he strikes out. *sighs* At least the manager is still smiling.

Top 9th
Okada in at center for Yokoyama. And Katsuya singles to left for his 4th hit of the game! Then Morimoto singles with one out for runners at the corners. But Miyazaki gets Takahashi to ground into the 5-4-3 DP! Nicely done!

It's down to the final 3 outs for Saibi now.

Bottom 9th
Saibi looks to rally to the music of Otsuka Ai's "Sakuranbo"...

And Asaoka lines one hard to RF for a double!! Yay!

Ikenaga gets a hold of a high pitch and drills it! To Shibata in right...

Miyazaki up now. I wonder if he should've been PH for... and he K's on an off-speed pitch. It's all up to Morimoto now.

He hits one to the left side! Urata with the grab, but Morimoto should get there...

...but he dives! WHY?! He would have been safe if he ran it out!

That ends the game, and Chiben advances with the 3-0 victory to face the winner of the next game.

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Chiben Wakayama
SS Urata (6) - 1-4, 2B, RBI, K, BB
RF Shibata (1) - 0-5
2B Katsuya (4) - 4-5, 2R
1B Sakaguchi (3) - 3-5, 2 2B, RBI, K
C Morimoto (2) - 2-4, BB
LF Takahashi (7) - 1-4, R, BB
CF Tanbo (8) - 0-3, K, BB
P Okada (10) - 2-4, R, RBI
3B Kitabatake (5) - 0-3

Saibi (Ehime)
SS Ogata (6) - 1-3
RF-CF-RF Tahara (3) - 2-4
LF Oomori (7) - 2-4, K
1B-3B-1B Tanaka (5) - 0-2, 2 BB
CF-P-CF Sakata (9) - 0-3, K
PH Yokoyama (18) - 0-1, K
CF Okabe (8) - No PA
3B-RF-3B Asaoka (14) - 1-3, 2B, BB
2B Ikenaga (4) - 0-4, K
P-1B-P Furukawa (1) - 0-2, 2 K, BB
P Miyazaki (10) - 0-1, K
C Matsumoto (2) - 0-4
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