Yudai Noda threw a five-hit shutout striking out seven batters to lead Aomori Yamada to a 7-0 blanking of Nobeoka Gakuen in the second round at the national high school championship on Friday.
Second baseman Kenji Ohigashi and Noda each homered in the second, helping the Aomori school to a 4-0 lead through the fourth at Koshien Stadium. Seiya Honda hit a two-run shot in a three-run eighth for insurance.
Noda's shutout was the first of this summer's tournament. Yasuhiko Onishi allowed four runs while scattering seven hits in seven innings for the Miyazaki school.
In the day's second game, Keisuke Kanuma turned the game around with a bases-clearing double as Kiryu Daiichi overcame a three-run deficit in a four-run eighth to beat Saga Shogyo 6-5 and make it into the third round. Kanuma pitched one-run ball over seven innings for the Gunma school after taking the mound in the third.
In other second-round action, Masahiro Inui struggled yielding two runs on eight hits over the distance but got run support from Yusuke Katsuki's RBI double and his opponent's error in a three-run fifth as Toyodai Himeji of Hyogo Prefecture edged out Yamanashi's Kofu Kogyo 4-2.
In the day's final game, right-hander Muga Umeno pitched a five hitter with nine strikeouts en route to a complete-game shutout and first baseman Takeshi Makishima had a two-out two-run double in the fifth, helping push Fukuoka Kodai Joto into the third round with a 4-0 win over Sendai Kitakami of Iwate Prefecture.