Tohoku High School right-hander Yu Darvish outpitched Heian lefty Daisuke Hattori, pitching a two-hitter over 11 innings as the Miyagi Prefectural school beat the Kyoto school with a 1-0 "sayonara" victory in the third round of the national high school baseball tournament on Wednesday.
Sho Nihei of Ibaraki's Joso Gakuin is tagged out at home by Shizuoka High School catcher Yugo Aoike.
Tohoku third baseman Masayoshi Kato singled to left field to bring home the game-winning run from second base in the bottom of the 11th inning.
Darvish, whose father is from Iran, walked five and struck out 15 to lead Tokoku to its first trip to the final eight at the summer tourney in 18 years.
Hattori allowed seven hits and walked three while fanning 17 batters in a losing effort.
In the quarterfinals, Tokoku will face Aomori's Kosei Gakuin, which beat Kurashiki Kogyo of Okayama Prefecture 2-0.
Kosei Gakuin hurler Yasuhiro Kuwazuru pitched four-hit ball in his third straight complete game and did not allow a runner past third.
Offensively, Takahiko Tanaka doubled home the opening run in the first and Makoto Ariki added another run on an RBI single in the fifth.
Iwakuni of Yamaguchi Prefecture sent 14 batters to the plate in a 10-run, fourth-inning outburst for a 12-4 comeback victory over Fukui Shogyo.
Iwakuni's Naohiro Otao went 3-for-5 with a team-high five RBIs.
In the day's final game, Joso Gakuin's Sho Nihei and Hideaki Iijima combined on a five-hitter and the Ibaraki Prefecture school scored the first run on a squeeze bunt in the second inning, taking advantage of opponent errors to blank Shizuoka High School 7-0.
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