88th Summer Koshien Game 4

Seiho High School came to the Summer Koshien with something to prove. Earlier in the year they had suffered an embarrassing defeat in the Spring Koshien, losing to Yokohama Koukou 21-0. You could bet that they wanted to make a statement in the first round of the tournament. Sadly for Fukushima's Kounan Koukou, they would wind up being their punching bag.

The first two innings went rather quietly as both teams managed only 2 hits. But the second time around the lineup for Seiho would be much better. Last batter RF Ikeno-kun led off the inning with a first-pitch triple to left-center. CF Sasaki Yusuke takes the next pitch up the middle plating Ikeno. Yusuke would take 2nd on an errant pick-off throw, and would score later on cleanup hitter LF Kihara's double to right.

The game was well in hand for Seiho, up 9-3 in the top of the 8th, but the went for more. RP Ezura had taken over pitching 3 scoreless innings for Konan. But it would all unravel quickly. Ikeno would begin the inning with his second leadoff triple. Yusuke and 2B Ootsu would walk loading the bases. Hiroaki would plate a run grounding to 2nd and Kihara singles to right scoring the other two. A fielder's choice and walk later and the bases were once again loaded. C Tanabe-kun would take a 1-2 pitch to left scoring another 2. That ended Ezura's day, but RP Hoshi would fare no better giving up two more singles. After a fielder's choice, Ootsu would take a 1-1 pitch over the left field fence. When the dust finally settled, Seiho would send 16 batters and plate 12 runs. They would add one more in the 9th as the icing surpassing the 21 runs scored by Yokohama, and seemingly sending a message that everyone else should watch out.

Of note, the 8th inning for Seihou featured a delayed steal of home by Kihara after SS Sasaki Nobuyuki stole 2nd.

Game Summary

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Seiho High School (Nagasaki)	0	0	3	4	2	0	0	12	1	22	20	2
Kounan Koukou (Fukushima)	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	3	12	3

Box Score
Seiho High School

Lineup	Name	#	Position	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	Avg.
1	Sasaki Yusuke	8	CF	5	4	2	0	0	0	1	2	0	1	0.400
2	Ootsu	13	2B	6	2	3	0	0	1	4	1	1	0	0.500
3	Hiroaki	4	3B	5	3	1	1	0	0	3	1	0	0	0.200
4	Kihara	7	LF	5	2	3	1	0	0	4	1	0	2	0.600
5	Sasaki Nobuyuki	6	SS	5	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	3	0.200
6	Hayashi	3	1B	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.250
	Furuga ?	16	PH(8)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.000
	Takao	10	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-----
	Yoshiura	11	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-----
7	Tanabe	2	C	4	1	2	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0.500
	Hamamura	18	PH(9)-RF	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000
8	Arisako	1	P	4	1	1	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.250
	Sasada	5	PH(8)	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1.000
	Yamabe	14	1B	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.000
9	Ikeno	9	RF	4	4	4	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	1.000
	Ikeda	17	PH(9)	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.000
	Oota	15	C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-----

Kounan Koukou

Lineup	Name	#	Position	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	Avg.
1	Ichikawa	7	LF	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0.000
2	Kobayashi	4	2B	5	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.400
3	Maruyama	9	RF	4	0	2	1	0	0	1	1	1	0	0.500
4	Usuba	3	1B	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.250
5	Nagayama	2	C	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0.333
	Kusano	12	C*	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000
6	Suzuki	5	3B	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0.500
7	Midorigawa	8	CF	4	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0.500
8	Nemoto	1	P	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0.000
	Ezura (?)	18	P	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1.000
	Hoshi	10	P	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000
9	Katano	6	SS	4	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.500

• Came in with 2nd pitching change.

Seiho High School

Name	#	W/L	IP	BF	R	ER	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	WP	ERA
Arisako	1	W	7	32	2	2	12	1	0	0	1	7	0	2.57
Takao	10		1	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.00
Yoshiura	11		1	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.00

Kounan Koukou

Name	#	W/L	IP	BF	R	ER	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	WP	ERA
Nemoto	1	L	4+	26	9	7	10	3	1	0	4	2	1	15.75
Ezura	10		3.1+	16	7	7	3	0	1	0	3	3	0	18.90
Hoshi	11		1.2	13	5	5	7	0	0	1	2	1	0	27.00