Cleanup hitter Shota Nakamoto hit a tiebreaking homer in a four-run 11th inning Tuesday as Nichinan Gakuen of Miyazaki Prefecture held off Kanagawa's Toko Gakuen 9-6 in the National High School Baseball Championship.
Nichinan followed up Nakamoto's two-out homer with three hits, coupled with a defensive miscue by Toko, in the decisive inning as the Miyazaki school came back from a two-run deficit and then blew a three-run lead in the 10th in booking a place in the third round.
In the day's other second-round action at Koshien Stadium, Kazuhiro Sasaki pitched a complete game and hit a go-ahead double in the eighth inning to lead Maebashi Shogyo of Gunma Prefecture to a 2-1 win over Saitama's Urawa Gakuin.
Bunsei Geidai Fuzoku of Tochigi Prefecture broke a 1-1 tie on a fifth-inning homer by leadoff man Yusuke Arai and held on for a 5-2 victory over Konan from Okinawa. Shoma Sato rebounded from a shaky start to throw a complete game for Bunsei.
Saga Kita and Ujiyamada Shogyo from Mie Prefecture played to a 4-4 tie after 15 innings and forced a rematch under tournament rules. Saga Kita scored a run each in the sixth and seventh to send the game into extra innings after Ujiyamada rallied with a four-run fifth.