Tokoha Gakuen Kikugawa beat Ogaki Nichidai 6-1 on Monday in a rematch of their clash in the final of the national invitational meet this spring, moving within two wins of completing a double in the two biggest tournaments in Japanese high school baseball.
Tokoha Gakuen Kikugawa lefty Takayuki Morita fires a pitch in Monday's semifinal game against Ogaki Nichidai at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Pref. The Shizuoka Prefecture school won 6-1.
KYODO PHOTOTokoha, a Shizuoka Prefecture school, joined Nagasaki Nichidai in the last four of the National High School Baseball Championship after the Nagasaki school cruised to a 7-1 win over Yoshikan of Oita in the day's other quarterfinal played at Koshien Stadium.
Trailing by one run in the fifth inning, Tokoha turned the tables on the Gifu school with three consecutive one-out hits including an RBI triple by catcher Ryoya Ishioka and a run-scoring single by third baseman Shingo Ito.
Tokoha effectively put the game away with a four-run eighth, highlighted by a two-run homer from Ishioka off Ogaki Nichidai ace Takayuki Morita. Tokoha starter Kenjiro Tanaka allowed a run and four hits while retiring the final 16 batters he faced.
Tokoha became the first team from Shizuoka Prefecture in 34 years to reach the semifinals of the national championship.
In Monday's first game, Nagasaki Nichidai raced to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a pair of hits, two stolen bases and a sacrifice fly in eliminating tournament debutant Yoshikan.
Nagasaki Nichidai right fielder Yuta Magaribuchi drove in four runs with a 3-for-4 performance, including a seventh-inning double that capped the scoring. Yuki Uraguchi scattered eight hits and did not walk a batter over the distance, limiting Yoshikan to one run.