Day 9, Game 3 - Kenritsu Gifu Shougyou (Gifu) vs. Osaka Touin (Osaka)

So both Mori and Kinden are out for Osasa Touin...  How many more injuries will they face?

Kenritsu Gifu Shougyou (Gifu) - Tokai Champions
LF Kawamura Renji
3B Azuma Taito (#4)
CF Aoki Shouya
1B Takenaka Hiroki
C Kouyama Takurou
SS Noda Gento
RF Hayashi Tomonori
2B Okimoto Takuya (#14)
P Fujita Ryouji

Osaka Touin (Osaka) - Kinki 3/4 seed
CF Mori Shinnosuke (#13)
2B Minemoto Takumi
3B Kasamatsu Yuuya
RF Fukumori Hiroto
1B Tsujita Daiki (#8)
SS Mizutani Yuuya
C Kume Tateo
LF Tamura Toki
P Amimoto Kousuke (#11)

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14:10 - First pitch!

Top 1st
Is Amimoto their ace or something?  He's started both games.

Not that he's doing a poor job though.  After Kawamoto finally goes down swinging, Azuma and Aoki need just 2 pitches each to retire the side.

Bottom 1st
Shinnosuke with a drive to right! Hayashi running back to the fence, can't seem to get a solid beat on it and it falls in behind him!  Shinnosuke's in with a triple!

Minemoto with a hard shot to right!  Okimoto makes a great diving stop, throws to 1st and Shinnosuke can't score!

But Kasamoto fixes that in a jiffy, lining one to center.  1-0, Osaka Touin!

Fukumori with a grounder up the middle.  Noda fields it, but trips over Kasamtasu who's standing at 2nd!  Everyone's safe!

And that bad luck hurts Kengifushou as Tsujita singles to center as well, scoring Kasamatsu!  2-0 just that quickly!

Mizutani flies to center, but even without their 2 best hitters, they're still firing on all cylinders!

Top 2nd
Takenaka starts the inning with a 4-pitch walk!  Fujita-kantoku electing not to bunt, Koumoto hits it to 3rd, and it's off Kasamatsu's glove and into left!  Runners on 1st and 2nd now!

But during Noda's AB, Kume catches Takenaka standing in Kobe and picks him off!  What was the point of that lead??!

And now it's compounded when Noda singles past Mizutani into left!  Now all they have is runners on 1st and 2nd again!

Hayashi in his first start, falls behind 1-2, but starts fouling off pitches.

Grounder to the left side, gets by Tsujita... gets by Minemoto!  Kouyama rounding for home, and Fukumori forgets the ball!  He scores to make it 2-1!

Okimoto with a high chopper to 3rd! Kasamatsu goes home, tag from Kume... SAFE!!!!

The umpire calls him safe and we're tied at 2-2!!!

I guess from the replays Noda got his foot in right before the tag!

Fujita trying to help his own cause, does a bit by advancing the runners with a grounder to 1st.

Kawamoto with a short liner to left!  Kawamura charging in, reaches down, but it's off his glove!   Hayashi and Okimoto score and instead of a 2-run deficit, Kengifushou has a 2-run lead!!

Azuma flies out to left and this time Kawamura makes a great running catch in foul territory!  But that great catch is one batter too late for the score!

Bottom 2nd
Fujita having some trouble with the bottom of the lineup.  Kume goes full before flying out to center.  Tamura goes 2-2 before grounding to 1st, and then he loses Amimoto on a 3-1 fastball low.

The lineup flips back up to Shinnosuke.  Can he do something this time around too? He goes 2-2 before fouling off a couple of pitches.

But Fujita climbs the ladder and strikes him out swinging!

Top 3rd
Aoki with a liner to right center that splits the defense and goes to the wall!  He's in with a leadoff triple!!

Takenaka can't drive him in though as he grounds to short.

Koumoto with a grounder to short, AH!

Mizutani tries to backhand it for a play at the plate, but he can't field it with the glove!  It goes into left and now it's 5-2 Kengifushou!

Noda grounds into the 4-6-3 double play to end the inning, but they're one more run behind!  And now when it seemed like they weren't missing a beat with them missing, they may have needed their services after all!

Bottom 3rd
Minemoto inside outs one and bloops it down the left field line!

Nishitani-kantoku with the hit-and-run!  Kasamatsu with another timely hit lines to right!  Runners at the corners with no out!

Fukumori does his job.  He hits a sac fly to left to get a run in to make it 5-3.

Tsujita chases a ball at his shoulders and goes down for the 2nd out!

And after going 3-0 on Mizutani, he fills the count and then gets him to hit a weak grounder back to Fujita for the 3rd out!  But they get one run closer and there's still a lot of time.

Top 4th
Hayashi starts off the inning with a line shot to left.  Okimoto tries to bunt him along, but Amimoto fires to 2nd and gets the lead runner!

Fujita does move the runner along with a groundout to 2nd, but Kawamoto goes down swinging to end the inning.

Bottom 4th
The bottom of the lineup continues to struggle as bench players have been called into service.  It takes just 8 pitches to retire the bottom of the lineup, all on popups!

Top 5th
With #15 Murakami hitting for Amimoto, his day is done.  Ace Kusugawa comes in to pitch.

After retiring the first 2 batters on 2 total pitches, Takenaka denies Kusugawa the clean inning by hitting a single through to left.

But Kouyama grounds to 2nd to end the inning.

Bottom 5th
Once again, Fujita gets two quick outs from Shinnosuke and Minemoto, but walks Kasamatsu under the same circumstances as last inning!

Fukiumori with a high chopper that just deflects over Fujita's glove!  Okimoto with the backup, but by then he has no play!  All safe!

Tsujita with a liner over Azuma and down the left field line!  Kasamtasu scores on Tsujita's double and it's a 5-4 ballgame with Osaka Touin still threatening!

Mizutani with a soft liner right to Okimoto and the inning is over!  But like I said earlier there's still time and as we head into the break, Osaka Touin is just trailing by 1-run!

Top 6th
Noda almost gets unlucky with a 3-2 pitch which would have been called ball 4, goes off the end of the bat for a foul ball.  But he gets his walk on the next pitch anyways.

Fujita-kantoku electing for the hit and run, but Hayashi hits it back to Kusugawa!  He goes to 2nd for one, but Mizutani has to secure the ball after the slide by Noda.

Another hit and run!  Okimoto hits it to Kasamatsu who goes to 2nd, but Hayashi is safe!  Relay to 1st though still gets Okimoto for the 2nd out.

Oh!  Kusugawa hits Fujita on the back of the leg and has to be replaced with an injury runner.  Not a good development for Kengifushou, especially on the mound.

Fujita-kantoku probably not happy his pitcher got hit, does the hit and run!  He swings and misses but the throw from Kume not online and both runners are safe!

But Kusugawa jams him and he hits a grounder to 2nd to end the inning!  Kengiushou scores none, but more importantly, what about Fujita?

Bottom 6th
After a while, Fujita comes out and returns to the mound!  But how effective is he?  He's already in a dogfight with the reigning champs!

Kume flies out to left, which is a little different because he's been allowing grounders and popups instead of fly balls.

Tamura golfs one into the air, Okimoto and Hayashi converge on it near the foul line and Hayashi calls off Okimoto off to make the catch.

Again no 1-2-3 inning though as Kusugawa singles through the left side.  I think Fujita is leaving his pitches up now.

Back to the top of the order and Shinnosuke.

And Fujita gets him to strikeout on a pitch nowhere near the zone for the 3rd out!

Top 7th
Takenaka breaks up two groundouts to 2nd with a single to left.  Kouyama follows that up with a single past Minemoto!

But Noda's bid for a base hit loses to a jumping Tsujita for the 3rd out.

Bottom 7th
Fujita's pitch count continues to climb, but he for now is still able to retire the Osaka Touin batters.

Minemoto with a grounder to 2nd, Kasamatsu with one to 3rd.  And Fukumori chases one away and flies to right!

Top 8th
Kusugawa having no trouble with the bottom of the lineup and retires the side in order.  But there's only 6 outs left for Osaka Touin!

Bottom 8th
Oh, during Tsujita's AB, he stumbles after his delivery.  Is it the leg after he got hit?

Tsujita does fly out to center, 5 outs to go...

Mizutani with a deep fly to right!  Hayashi moving close to the fence makes the catch!  Are they making progress against Fujita!

Kume with a drive to left!  Kawamura chases it to the wall, but it's a double for Kume!

Fujita-kantoku calling time as Tamura comes in to try and score the douten run!  And the defense is leaving a large gap in left-center!

Fujita goes for a curve on 2-2 and Tamura pops it up!  Azuma in foul territory makes the catch and the side is retired!

Top 9th
Kawamoto with a short fly to right, Fukumori charging in... makes the diving catch!  Nice play by the RF!

Azuma though comes back and grounds one through to left for a base hit!

Fujita-kantoku will play for the run as Aoki bunts him over for Takenaka who is 2-3 on the day with a walk.

Nishitani-kantoku calls for time.  Will they walk him with the base open?

No!  They go after him and he hits a pop fly on the first pitch!  Tamura with the catch in foul territory and it's game time for Osaka Touin!

Bottom 9th
They have just 3 outs left in their bid to win 3 straight Koushien tournaments!

And the 9-1-2 batters are due up for Osaka Touin.

Kusugawa steps in and takes a big swing and a miss.  Another swing and a miss!  And he goes down on three sliders!  One out!

Slider for strike one to Shinnosuke.  Goes and chases another curve for strike 2!  Will Fujita ever throw a fastball?

Yes, but not for a strike.

And he fouls off another slider!

SANSHIN!!!!  He chases a slider and there's 2 outs!

Minemoto the last chance as Nishitani-kantoku calls time and has Tomoya talk to him.

Slider for strike 1, slider fouled off for strike 2!

Fastball way high and away for ball 1.

And Minemoto with an easy swing, carries a ball the other way for a base hit!

That brings up Kasamatsu with Tomoya talking to him as well...

Change in for strike 1!  Change misses for a ball.  Slider in for strike 2!!  Osaka Touin down to their last strike again!

Change high and away and Kasamtasu fouls it off!

Grounder to 3rd, and it's off Azuma's glove!  All safe!  Fukumori with a chance to tie it with a base hit!

He does!  Groundball back up the middle into center!  Minemoto sent home!  Throw from Aoki... Kouyama has it, collision!!

Ball pops out and he's safe!  No, wait!  He's called out for the collision at home!  Koumoto is in pain on the ground, but Minemoto is called out on the collision and that's the game!  Kenritsu Gifu Shougyou ends Osaka Touin's bid to win 3 straight calendar Koushien titles winning by the score of 5-4!!

It hasn't come with out a cost though, as Kouyama has to be helped off the field so he can't even stay for the school song.  And afterwords ace Fujita doesn't go to the oen-dan afterwards and is helped off the field himself!  They won the game, but may have lost their battery!