Kyushu Update!

Well, Ken and I are furiously working on updating all the brackets. He's working from Okinawa going east and I was heading from Hokkaido south.

I'll have the updated brackets up later for this region, but we're close to having our first qualifier!

With sleep being at a premium for me lately, I'm going to run through these for now.

Okinawa-ken
4 past Koshien participants made it to the best 4. Okinawa Suisan faced off against Chubu Shougyou while Kounan met Yaeyama Shoukou.

In semifinal #1, Yaeyama Shoukou had to continuously fight from behind. When Kounan scored 3 in the 2nd, they tied it up in the 3rd. And when Kounan pulled ahead in the 5th, they tied it in the 7th. But when Kounan scored a run in the 9th to go ahead 5-4, Yaeyama was out of time.

The other semifinal say Okinawa Suisan pull ahead 2-0 in the top of the 3rd, only to see Chubu Shougyou score 3 to take the lead. And 2 more runs in the 8th proved to be too much.

So, it's Kounan's Shimabukuro vs. Chubu Shougyou's Nema for the 1st bid!


Kagoshima-ken
We're to the Best 4 here. Kamimura Gakuen is 2 games away from realizing their Koshien dream. But their first test will be Kagoshima Shougyou. Meanwhile, underdog Kagoshima Minami will meet Shounan in the other semifinal. Shounan though, squeaked by Ibusuki 4-3 in 10 innings in the Best 8 matchup.

Miyazaki-ken
Miyazaki is about to start their Sweet 16 matchups. Notable names here include Miyazaki Shougyou, Miyakonojyou Izumigaoka, Nichinan Gakuen and St. Ursula.

Kumamoto-ken/Oita-ken
I think they're getting close to the Sweet 16, will have to get back to here later.

Nagasaki-ken
Never fear, Seihou won 5-0 in their first game against Kawatana 5-0. Imamura went 7 innings.

Aack. Off to bed.