Wednesday, August 10, 2016

98th Natsu Koushien - Day 4, Game 3 - Shiritsu Wakayama (Wakayama) v Seiryou (Ishikawa)

Seiryou and Shiritsu Wakayama up next. Shiritsu Wakayama did rack up wins versus Chiben Wakayama and Minoshima, Seiryou defeated Nihon Koukuu Ishikawa, and you could throw in Komatsu Meihou and Komatsu Ootani though those are lesser victories.

Both pitching staffs are unremarkable, so it may be up to the offenses to determine the winner. In which case Seiryou (unfortunately) has the advantage.

Shiritsu Wakayama (Wakayama)
3B Yamazaki Takuya (山崎 拓哉)
2B Kawasaki Makoto (河崎 真)
CF (13)Yabui Kanta (藪井 幹大)
1B Kitajima Riku (北嶋 陸)
RF Kinoshita Kouji (木下 康司)
LF Shichino Rei (七野 怜)
C Okamoto Naoki (岡本 尚輝)
P Akaba Riku (赤羽 陸)
SS Hamano Shougo (浜野 匠吾)

Seiryou (Ishikawa)
CF Morita Ryouga (森田 涼雅)
2B Hatanaka Riku (畑中 陸)
SS Toritani Takaya (虎谷 貴哉)
P Teranishi Ken (寺西 建)
1B (9)Kigura Tomoki (木倉 朋輝)
3B Wakamiya Ryuu (若宮 颯)
LF Sasaki Natsukai (佐々木 夏海)
RF Koshinaka Kei (越中 圭)
C Kawagishi Masaaki (川岸 正興)

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13:50 - First Pitch!

Top 1st
That didn't take long.

Yamazaki single through left side. After a sac bunt, Teranishi walks Yabui on 4 straight.

Kitajima with a grounder up the 3rd base line fair, but it hits the umpire making the call! The ball stays in the infield and the runners have to hold up! Manrui, but 1 run could have been in!

Kinoshita remedies that immediately with a sac fly to left center. 1-0.

Shichino pops out, but this is pretty much what you should expect this game on both sides.

Bottom 1st
One down Hatenaka with a gapper to right center all the way to the wall for a triple. Toritani with a clean single through the 4 hole and we're tied at 1-1.

Akaba gets fortunate on his own when he gets a looky what I found in my glove on a hard comebacker. Almost throws it away, but gets the 1-6-3 double play.

Top 2nd
Things going from bad to worse for Teranishi.
  • A single back up the middle by Okamoto.
  • After a sac but, he throws a wild pitch, and there's a passed ball before Hamano walks.
After that Teranishi is exiled to the outfield. #17 Taketani comes in, moving Ternishi to RF and Kigura to LF.

But Yamazaki singles to left center, scoring Okamoto.

2 batters later Yabui singles to right scoring 2 more and it's 4-1 Shiritsu Wakayama.

The counter stops there... for now.

Bottom 2nd
Oh, this hurts to watch...
  • Kigura - Leadoff walk, not really close
  • Wakamiya - Single through left side
  • Sasaki - Bunt, but Akaba trips over himself fielding the ball to throw to 1st.
  • Taketani - E4 when Kawasaki can't cleanly field the ball, 4-2
  • Kawagishi - K
  • Morita - 1-2-3 DP
Yikes.

Top 3rd
Taketani still struggling with the strike zone, running two 3-ball counts, but somehow he gets 2 K's in their first clean inning.

Bottom 3rd
Hatenaka gets his 2nd hit, another base hit to right. Then with 1 down Teranishi hits a high chopper. Akaba fields it, but so was everyone else and that means no one is covering 1st. Oy.

And yet! Kigura grounds into the 4-6-3 double play to end the inning!

Top 4th
Is Taketani settling down? It's hard to say because despite the fact he gets a 1-2-3 inning, the batters are still making good contact.

Bottom 4th
I think what's happening is that the batters are seeing all these hits, errors, etc. and are thinking they can make hay. But instead they all rush to get a hit and instead get out.

2 down, Taketani hits a grounder to short, but Kitajima can't make the pick on the throw. That's hurts because Kawagishi singles to right.

And then Morita singles to left. Manrui for Seiryou.

Hatenaka hard chopper back to Akaba and he snags it! Throw to 1st and he gets out of it!

Top 5th
Kawasaki gets a leadoff hit. Once again they elect to bunt the runner over.

Kitajima checks his swing, but makes contact with the ball anyways into fair territory. 2 out.

Kinoshita gets fooled, swings at a ball way outside and flies out to right for the 3rd out.

Bottom 5th
Seiryou giving Akaba a break needing just 6 pitches to get all 3 outs. There's been 3 full innings of 0's. Chances are the break will allow the offenses to reset and we may see crooked numbers yet.

Bottom 6th
Wakamine leads off with a single to center. But when Hayashi-kantoku tries the hit and run, instead it turns into a strike-em-out throw-em-out double play! That's the 4th double play and kills the rally!

Top 7th
Hamano finally gets to Taketani with a single to center. After a sac bunt, Kawasaki rips one to the right side, but right at Kigura for the 2nd out.

Yabui comes to the rescue again, hitting another RBI single to right, making it 5-2.

Bottom 7th
Shiritsu Wakayama's defense continuing to give chances to Seiryou. One down, Kawasaki boots a grounder back up the middle. Morita reaches safely, then steals 2nd.

But Hatenaka strikes out on 3 straight, and Toritani grounds to 3rd to end the inning.

Top 8th
Things get worse for Seiryou. After a base hit by Kinoshita, Taketani is relieved by #13 Ogura.

After a sac bunt, he gives up a double to Okamoto scoring Kinoshita. 6-2.

The supposed final nail in the coffin comes when Hamano hits a ball to right and it goes under Teranishi's glove and all the way to the wall for a 1B + 3 base error. 8-2.

#11 Shimizu comes in to close the frame, but it's pretty much over now.

And so the rest of the game went. Seiryou would get a chance to score some runs in the 8th, but Shiritsu Wakayama almost turns a triple play instead.

The game mercifully ends with no more runs and Shiritsu Wakayama advancing.

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