The captain of Okinawa's first entry into the National High School Baseball Championship tourney 30 years ago threw out the ceremonial first pitch Thursday to open the 84th edition of Japan's midsummer classic.
Jun Nakamune, who was captain of the Nago High School team in 1972, took part in the tournament's opening ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of Okinawa's first entry into the tournament after the 1972 reversion of the island prefecture to Japanese sovereignty.
Okinawa's entry in this year's tourney, Chubu Shogyo, also led the procession of teams during the ceremony, as the 49 schools marched into the stadium in order starting from the southern-most school.
In the opening game, Teikyo of Tokyo showed little consideration for the Okinawa school, racing out to an eight-run lead in the first three innings and sending Chubu Shogyo home early with an 11-8 win.
In later games, Kaisei of Nagasaki whippped Niigata's Nihon Bunri 8-1, while Yohei Tanaka of Chiben Gakuen tossed a six hitter as it beat Takudai Koryo of Chiba 6-0.