Day 11, Game 2 - Osaka Touin (Osaka) v. Yazu (Tottori)

I don't have time for a writeup, but god speed Yazu...

Osaka Touin (Osaka)
LF Nakamura Makoto
2B Minemoto Takumi
3B Katsuki Kazuya
1B Masazui Yuuya (#8)
RF Aoyagi Kouki (#13)
C Yokoi Yuuya
CF Mori Shinnosuke (#9)
SS Fukuda Kouki
P Tanaka Seiya (#10)

Yazu (Tottori)
CF Nishihara Tomoya
2B Oomoto Takahisa
SS Nakao Naoya
1B Ookubo Ryouhei
C Nishigaki Masaki
LF Takeuchi Shun
RF Kawada Kenichirou
3B Fujiwara Naoki
P Kamatani Kouhei

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10:40 - First Pitch!

Top 1st
Well, Kamatani going after Nakamura and gets him looking on a fastball on the inner half!

Minemoto grounder to short, Oomoto with the throw, but just not enough on it to get the out.

Katsuki a simple fly to left and there's 2 out.

Minemoto takes off for 2nd! Nishigaki's throw to 2nd... In time! 3 out!

Bottom 1st
Nakao gets Yazu their first base hit after 2 quick outs. But he tries to steal 2nd... and backpedals as he's tagged.

Top 2nd
Masazui looks like he waited until the last minute to decide on swinging, flies out to center.

Aoyagi clean single through the left side.

Tokunaga-kantoku must have done a great coaching job on Kamatani as he's going right after Osaka Touin! Yokoi strikes out on a changeup on the outside edge!

Mori with a liner, but right to Takeuchi and it's another clean inning!

Bottom 2nd
Yazu's batters to start are stubborn at least. Nishigaki goes 7 pitches before he strikes out. Takeuchi goes 8 before finally placing one in right center for a base hit.

Kawada sharp shot up 1st base line, but Masazui makes a great backhanded stop! Goes to 1st for 3rd out.

Yazu in the early stages is holding their own. But this is a marathon and there are many innings to go.

Top 3rd
Kamatani getting 2 quick outs from the bottom of the lineup. He's have a clean inning, but an irregular bounce on a ball up they middle by Nakamura catches Nakao off guard and it goes into center.

Kamatani walks Minemoto... could this be where Osaka Touin strikes?

No! Katsuki gets jammed and he just rolls an easy ball to Ookubo! Tags 1st and Kamatani is out of the mini-pinch!

Bottom 3rd
Yazu meanwhile, cannot get any traction against relief starter Tanaka and go down in order.

Top 4th
One down for Osaka Touin and Aoyagi hits a single right in front of Takeuchi.

Yokoi with a blooper to center, Nakao and Nishihara converge, but it falls right in between them!

AH! Mori liner to left for a base hit! It's manrui for Osaka Touin! There's no place to put Fukuda as he steps in.

And Kamatani bends down as he thought for sure he had Fukuda on the 2-2 slider inside.

OSHIDASHI!  His slider just misses outside and he walks in a run! Osaka Touin takes a 1-0 lead!

Tanaka grounder to 1st! Ookubo goes home and they get the lead runner. 2 down and Kamatani can still get out of the jam.

No!!  His full count pitch to Nakamura goes low and he walks in another run! 2-0 Osaka Touin!

And now he hits Minemoto on the elbow! That brings in another run! 3-0 Osaka Touin and the dream for Yazu is crashing down hard.

Katsuki grounder up middle, Oomoto with a diving attempt, but can only deflect it! 2 runs are going to score on the play and they've blown it open now leading 5-0.

Masazui up for the 2nd time, records the 1st and 3rd outs of the inning, grounding out to short. But Kamatani, who had been strong all game has finally broken.

Bottom 4th
Trailing big now, Yazu still goes with their patience strategy, but it's still not producing any results. They are retired in order.

Top 5th
C Nishigaki removes the gear and will take the hill! Ace Kamatani gives way for #12 Ooishi who will do the receiving work now.

First up he strikes out Aoyagi on a fastball on the outer half.  And then it's back-to-back flyouts from Mori and Yokoi! The C has a 1-2-3 inning!  Good for him!

Bottom 5th
Sadly it's much of the same for Yazu. 3 up, 3 down.

It was a great first couple of innings as Yazu held serve with Osaka Touin, but with the 5 runs and the inability to get any hits by the Yazu offense the game looks all but over.

Top 6th
Nishigaki not exactly with great control either, as he walks Fukuda to start the inning. 2 down, he walks Nakamura as well.

And he can't keep a clean sheet. Katsuki singles to right scoring Fukuda from 2nd without a throw.

He does get the 3rd out after that, but it really does feel like formalities.

Bottom 6th
Nishihara with the one of the harder hits by a Yazu batter, but he lines out to Fukuda for the 3rd out. Bench starter Tanaka with a 2-hit shutout going.

Top 7th
Runner on 3rd, no out, Nakao makes a great sliding stop on a hard shot from Yokoi. He's able to hold the runner and make he play at 1st.

Mori iwth a ball right at Ookubo. He looks the runner back and goes to the bag for the 2nd out.

And Nishigaki strands the runner! Fukuda pops up the first pitch and Nakao is there on the foul line to make the catch!

Bottom 7th
16 straight retired by Tanaka after he finishes up his 5th consecutive clean inning.

8th-9th Innings
More players come in, Osaka Touin scores more runs. Final score 10-0.

To be honest, asking Yazu to win would be like asking any AA squad to beat a major league team. Sure, it's possible, but not probable. But you should dream for at least a little that you could beat them. But I'm sure there was a collective groan when they found out they were facing them. All you can do is shrug your shoulders, go out there and do what you can.