Reviewing the field - Kinki quarterfinalist Osaka Touin

Ok, now to the team that in my opinion has a black hat, Osaka Touin.

I won't go back into the details, but I'm not surprised that they've been able to reload and qualify for Senbatsu, though they only reached the quarterfinals.

You'd think that maybe they just reached the quarterfinals and perhaps packed it in a bit knowing that brand name might carry them and they wouldn't have to show their wares as much compared to the rest, but Nishitani-kantoku sent out ace Tanaka Seiya (田中 誠也), so there's that.

Tanaka has some experience at Koushien as Nishitani-kantoku sent him to start their first game against Kaisei (Shimane), and struggled giving up 5 runs (4 earned) in his 5 innings of work. Given, it was mostly in the 1st inning, and it was probably nerves because he still struck out 7 in his time on the mound. He came back against Yazu to pitch a complete game shutout, yielding just 3 hits while striking out 7.

He was rarely pitching in high leverage situations as outside of a 5-1 win over Osaka Shoudai, his team had only one other full game before their loss to Tenri, and that was in the final against PL Gakuen, and that's only because it was required since it was the prefectural final.

Tanaka's K rates are massive. He struck out 74 in 57 IP of work, including 10 in his loss to Tenri. He did issue 23 walks, but still maintained a WHIP of 1.12. He looks to be the guy as the other 3 pitchers used pitched a total of 4 innings. Still, Nishitani-kantoku has brought along #10 Matsui Koutarou (松井 孝太郎) and #11 Takayama Yuuki (高山 優希), but I'm not sure how much time either pitcher will get.

Offensively, the team batted 0.399(!), with an ISO of 0.249(!!). 42 of their 101 hits went for extra bases. As you'd expect from an Osaka Touin team. You can point to just about the entire roster for guys who look like they could hit, so I'm not really sure which players to key in on.

The strength of their competition should regress their numbers significantly, but they should still be able to hit. The question will be whether or not the pitching can hold out. Tanaka isn't as good as the numbers project, but this team might just be scary, yet again.

*sighs*