93rd Koushien Qualifying - July 10th-12th (Kinki & Chuugoku Prefectures)

Kyoto
On the first full day of games in Kyoto, Saikyou and Kyoto Meitoku were in a closely contested battle before Saikyou plated the go-ahead run in the 10th to win 6-5. Meanwhile Tounan who had done well recently was unceremoniously ousted by Ayabe 1-0.

In other games on the 10th Ritsumeikan Uji, another strong team in the prefecture, starts off with a 8-0 win in 7 over Rakuyou Kougyou.

Onto the 11th and at Wakasa Stadium, Rakuhoku survives an opening barrage by Otokuni and picks off a run in he 5th and 7th for a 6-5 win. At Miyadzu Municipal, another irrational pet team of mine Kyoto Subaru needs a 3-run 8th to beat Kyoto Seishou 4-2.

At Taiyougaoka, a team of mine that actually has a chance - Kyoto Gaidai Nishi handled Miyadzu 8-1 in 7 and will face Kyoto Gakuen next as they held off Rakusei 5-4.

The 12th saw teams who played in the 1st round back on the field to face those lucky enough to draw a 1st round bye. Ritsumeikan Uji had no trouble with that as they beat Kita-Saga 5-1, and Kyoto Shouei slid past Hanazono 6-5.

Back to Miyadzu Municipal, and Higashi-Uji gets the lead back after allowing Jyounan Ryousou to tie it in the bottom of the 8th. Kousugi closes the door for the win 4-3.

Nara
Chiben Gakuen is the heads-on clear favorite, but might as well give some teams their time in the sun.

Takamado had the lead in the beginning, and more importantly in the end against Yamabe winning 8-6. In the battle of Takada, the lead changed hand 3 times - all in the 2nd half of the game. Takada's 2 runs in the top of the 9th tied it at 5. But Takada Shougyou made the 3rd and final lead change, scoring the sayonara run in the bottom of the 9th to win 6-5.

And on the 12th, Totsukawa did well to tie the game at 7 to eventually send it into extras, but Oouda scores the sayonara run to win 3-2 in 11 innings. Ouji Kougyou led 2-0, then 3-2, but trailed 4-3 going into the top of the 9th versus Tomigaoka. But no matter, Ouji scores 2 in the top of the 9th, retaking the lead for good.

Osaka
How Osaka can take breaks during their tournament is beyond me, but after the games on the 10th, they're on break until the 14th.

Anyways, not many notable games, though Perfect Liberty Gakuen (aka PL Gakuen) defeated Sakai 5-0 in their 1st game. Two more to go before advancing to the prefecturals!

Tsukinoki mounted a huge comeback, down 6-1 to Senri, they score 4 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to win 7-6!

And finally, Han-ai blows a 2-run lead in the bottom of the 9th, but recovers and scores the winning run in the 10th to beat Kansai Ookura.

Hyogo
Hm... on the 10th we had Shikama Kougyou edging Himeji Shougyou 2-1, our first extreme blowout when Himeji Kougyou scored 71 in 4 innings against Hikami Nishi (isn't there a point where there IS no point to scoring more runs?), Akashi Nishi held onto a 4-3 lead over Sanda Gakuen, Ikawadani uses a 3-run 8th to defeat Shouyou 5-3.

Moving onto the 12th, Hyogo Shougyou made an early 1-0 run stick against Akashi Shimizu. Rokko Island couldn't make a 2-0 1st inning lead stick as Miki would come back to win 3-2. Houjyou held a 4-0 lead over Kakogawa Minami, but couldn't make it stick. They started giving back runs in the 7th culminating in a 3-run 9th to send them home 5-4.

Akashi Jyousai gets the short end of the stick, as they yield a run to Akashi in the top of the 7th, they can't score in the bottom half, and the game is called due to rain.

Over at Tomioka Kounotori, Iwa scores 5 unanswered runs late to defeate Sanda Shouunkan 5-3.

Hiroshima
Over at Coca-Cola West, the 10th had 2 low scoring affairs with Misuzugaoka defeating Itsukaichi 1-0, and Kabe winning 2-1 over Kure Miyahara in 12. Those missing runs as it were came the next day as Shoubara Kakuchi defeats Namiki Gakuin 8-1 in 7, and Saijyou Shisui falls 15-0 to Shuudou.

Blowouts were also the case at Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium on the 10th.

At Kure Nikou, Ootake defeats Kure Shouwa 3-2 in 11 while Motomachi stays one step ahead of Asakita with an 8-7 victory.

Kannabe Asahi down 4-0 scores 6 in the bottom of the 8th against Mihara Higashi to win 6-4 at Mihara Municipal.

At Mihara Kinsai, Miyoshi Seiryou puts together 2 runs late to defeat Chiyoda 3-2. Onto the 11th, Yoshida scores 6 unanswered runs to pass Hatsukaichi 7-4.

And finally over at Higashi-Hiroshima Aqua, Fukuyama Kougyou pulls out a 4-3 win over Kamo Kita.