Shortstop Ryo Kusumoto hit a two-run tiebreaking single with two outs in the seventh inning as Chiben Wakayama held on to beat Gifu Shogyo 4-1 to reach the second round at the national high school baseball championship on Wednesday.
Chiben Wakayama shortstop Ryo Kusumoto hits a two-run tiebreaking single in
the seventh inning of Wednesday's first-round game against Gifu Shogyo at the
National High School Baseball Championship in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Pref.
KYODO PHOTOKusumoto went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored. Center fielder Katsuhito Furumiya added an insurance run with an RBI infield single in the seventh to cap the scoring at Koshien Stadium.
Gifu Shogyo's Ryota Kanamori used an effective slider to strike out 11 batters over six innings but allowed the Wakayama school to take the lead after losing steam in the seventh. He allowed four runs on six hits with 13 strikeouts in nine innings.
In other first-round action, first baseman Daisuke Nozaki drove in five runs, featuring a two-run go-ahead double in the third, on 3-for-4 hitting as Ishikawa's Kanazawa pounded Urawa Gakuin of Saitama 9-3.
Yuji Takiguchi yielded three runs scattering seven hits over the distance.
In the day's third game, Shizuoka Shogyo belted out 15 hits with three squeeze bunts while lefty Kensuke Ono threw two-run ball with six hits over nine innings in an 8-2 drubbing of Shiga's Hachiman Shogyo for the Shizuoka school's first win in 32 years.
Shortstop Kazuya Tanaka had a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning, helping lift Fukuchiyama Seibi of Kyoto to a 6-4 win over 2005 spring invitational titlist Aikodai Meiden.
The Aichi prefectural school was eliminated in the first round of the summer tourney for the second year in a row.