Day 4, Game 1 - Tsu Shougyou (Mie) v Chiben Wakayama (Wakayama)

Apologies, but these previews may be a bit shorter due to my body catching up on sleep.

Anyways, we almost at the halfway point of seeing all these teams. This is our last full day of 1st Round games. First up is a regional matchup between Tsu Shougyou and Chiben Wakayama.

Tsu Shougyou is here having defeated Inabe Sougou Gakuen for the title, but not having faced anyone else of note. As for Chiben Wakayama, they were able to defeat last year's usurpers Shiritsu Wakayama as well as Minoshima. So perhaps they're in better form than in previous years.  But on the overall they're look to be on the decline. However, they're still probably favored to win this matchup against first-timers.

Tsu Shougyou (Mie)
3B Ogouchi Kengo
CF Maeda Yuuta
1B Mastuba Kanou
LF Tsuji Yuuki
SS Egawa Yuuto
2B Takahashi Tomoki
RF Kuritani Taichi
P Sakakura Makoto
C Masuoka Akira

Chiben Wakayama (Wakayama)
CF Noguchi Haruki
2B Takimoto Reiichi
RF Yamamoto Ryuuga
C Nishiyama Touma
1B Haruno Kouki
SS Takagaki Eiji
LF Nakao Taisuke
3B Ooishi Kaito
P Saitou Yuuta

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08:00 - First pitch!

1st Inning
Well, as expected it's a clean inning for Saitou against the first timers.

The same cannot be said for the Tsu Shougyou's Sakakura though...

Noguchi drills a ball to left center all the way to the wall for a triple. Takigawa singles to make it 1-0. Then when he tries to steal 2nd, Masuoka throws it wide and allows Takigawa to reach 3rd.

Then Yamamoto doubles to right center making it 2-0 followed by Sakakura hitting Nishiyama.

Despite the awful start, he does get a 4-6-3 double play and a flyout to end the inning. It's 2 runs, but could have been much worse.

2nd Inning
Tsuji gets Tsu Shougyou first hit to lead off the inning, and Egawa amost bloops one to RF if not for some work by Takimoto but after that the ABs look subpar...

Fortunately, Sakakura has no problem with Chiben's bottom of the lineup and might get some respite there going forward.

Top 4th
Maeda comebacker to Saitou, but the throws it wide and they can't make the play! E1.

And now Tsuji's ball up the middle goes off off Takagaki and they have to play at all!

Egawa punishes Chiben! He singles though the left side and that scores Maeda! It's 2-1!!

Bottom 4th
Uh, oh, here comes Chiben. Nishiyama doubles down the left field line and they're in business!

Haruno deep ball to right Kuritani scrambling back... makes the catch!

Takagaki with a short liner to right, Kuritani charging... makes a shoestring catch!

And what's this? Sakakura strikes out Nakao looking and the inning is over!

Top 5th
Hopefully not gamesmanship, but Saitou hits Sakakura... Some discussion between Miyamoto-kantoku and his ace, but everything seems OK after the long talk.

Ogouchi with a single to left! Sakakura has to hold at 3rd, but Tsu Shougyou can tie up the game! with a timely hit!

Maeda with a slow bouncer up the 3rd base side! Ooishi charging, throws to 1st... SAFE!!!!

Sakakura scores and we're all square at 2-2!!

Matsuba grounds out, but it's a swinging bunt of all things that ties the game!

Bottom 5th
An odd single by Ooishi as the ball fools Takahashi and goes through to right. Perhaps there was some added english on the ball.

After a sac bunt, Chiben Wakayama makes a grave baseball error! Ooishi goes for 3rd on a ball to the SS and is easily thrown out! The ining ends with no damage and what seemed like a runaway right off the get go is a tie ballgame at the break!

Top 6th
Two down for Takahashi and he doubles down the right field side.

Kuritani singles to center! They're sending the runner home! Throw in.. high! Takahashi scores and Tsu Shougyou now has the lead!

Sakakura single to right! They're sending Kuritani! Throw from Yamamoto... That's on the mark and he's meat at the plate! But out of nowhere first-timers Tsu Shougyou has the lead!

Bottom 6th
There's new confidence in Tsu Shougyou. Sakakura going after the 3-4-5 batters, strikes out Yamamoto, strikes out Nishiyama looking(!) and Haruno can only look up in frustration after he hits a loud out to the wall.

Top 7th
Another error from Chiben Wakayama! Takimoto boots a ball from Masuoka.

Ogouchi not bunting and lines a ball over Takimoto! And now it goes under Noguchi's glove! Masuoka scores and It's 4-2 Tsushou!

Maeda and Matsuba both ground out, and perhaps they can limit it to 1 run.

Tsuji to center! Noguchi running back! It's over his head! Ogouchi scores and it's 5-2!!

P Change as #11 Kanaoka comes in.


Egawa grounds to short, but Takagaki airmails the throw! Tsuji scores and it's 6-2!

A walk to Takahashi and #13 Katou enters the game.

He walks a batter efore finally getting the 3rd out. But Chiben Wakayama looks done.

Bottom 7th
Oh dear, after the 1st two out, Sakakura has some issues with his arm. He goes to the dugout for treatment, but my cynical side (which is a large side), wouldn't be surprised.

He finally comes out, but you have to wonder for future games even if they advance.

But after throwing pitches, he takes himself out. #10 Ishikawa comes in.

After the first pitch, Masaoka comes out to talk to him. That's concerning.

He gets out of the inning, but we'll need to pay attention to the last 2 innings and how he performs.

Top 8th
After a Masuoka single, Chiben commit 2 more errors to load the bases. It would have been 3 if not for Tsu Shougyou trying to score 2 on the error. They did get 1 to make it 7-2.

Bottom 8th
And here's where the departure of Sakakura hurts. Yamamoto hits a 2-out, 2-run HR to make it 7-4. No more damage done, but you can see why I'm skeptical when a P gets hit, especially by a powerhouse school.

Top 9th
This is an embarrassment. After a single, Takimoto boots a ball. Ishikawa lays down the squeeze, and Katou flubs on the ball and no one's covering 1st. 8-4.

Masaoka bunts, it's fielded cleanly this time, but again no one covers 1st! 9-4.

Tsu Shougyou is making Chiben field. They lay down one more bunt, and they get it right this time.

Anyways, the game finally finishes with the score as it is. All you can say is that Tsu Shougyou played the game like they wanted to win. I have no idea what the heck happened to Chiben Wakayama.