NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Pref. (Kyodo) Toshiya Okada pitched a complete-game shutout and cleanup hitter Masaki Sakaguchi led the offense as Chiben Wakayama beat Ehime's Saibi 3-0 on the opening day of the National High School Baseball Championship on Saturday.
Okada kept Saibi's lineup at bay, scattering six hits and striking out seven, while Sakaguchi opened the scoring with an RBI double in the third inning in a 3-for-5 performance.
Chiben Wakayama, a quarterfinalist in the National Invitational Tournament in the spring, extended the lead on a Ryoma Kitabatake groundout in the fourth and a single by Yuki Urata in the sixth.
In the day's other first-round action at Koshien Stadium, Nobuhiro Takagi tripled and Yoshiro Aoyama followed with an RBI double to trigger a six-run third inning as Komadai Tomakomai of Hokkaido held off Yamaguchi's Shimonoseki Kogyo 8-6.
Chiba's Kisarazu Sogo downed Tottori Nishi 6-1 after Masahiro Sugisaki and Wataru Iwasaki keyed a five-run eighth inning with two-run singles. Tottori Nishi outfielder Akihiro Obata hit the first homer of the tournament.
