First baseman Kazuki Tozawa drove in a record-tying seven runs and hard-throwing right-hander Kenta Maeda struck out 16 Monday as PL Gakuen trounced Mooka Kogyo 9-1 in the national high school baseball invitational tournament.
Tozawa hit three doubles in four at-bats and cleared the bases in the first and fifth innings en route to matching the tournament's record for RBIs in a single game shared by New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui, Yomiuri Giants pitcher Masumi Kuwata, PL Gakuen's ace in 1983-85, and two others.
In other first round action, Aichi Keisei defeated Kanazawa Sakuragaoka 4-3, and Imabari Kita of Ehime Prefecture rallied for a 12-9 win over Miyazaki's Nobeoka Gakuen.