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| Chiben Wakayama pitcher Junpei Yamamoto is mobbed after his team's 11-6 victory. |
NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Pref. (Kyodo) Kentaro Tsutsumino hit a pair of solo homers and drove in four runs Monday to pace Chiben Wakayama to its second National High School Baseball Championship crown 11-6 over Chiba's Tokaidai Urayasu.
Chiben Wakayama, which also won the championship in 1997, pounded out 20 hits in the final at Koshien Stadium to set records for most hits (100) and most home runs (11) in the 14-day tourney.
The game was a classic seesaw struggle that delighted the 52,000 spectators over the first six innings with Tokaidai Urayasu taking a 6-5 lead on an RBI double by Takuya Mori. Chiben Wakayama, however, stormed back in the eighth inning, sending 10 batters to the plate for five runs on five hits and a 10-6 lead against an exhausted Sho Hamana, who was pitching for a third straight day.
In the ninth inning, Chiben Wakayama catcher Hitoshi Goto connected for a solo homer with the game already in hand to break the record of 10 home runs in a single tournament set by Osaka's PL Gakuen in 1985.