Congratulations to Chukyodai Chukyo for winning their first Koshien in 43 years!

A pretty excited game all around.

Chukyodai Chukyo grabbed an early lead in the bottom of the first on Dobayashi's (堂林翔太) 2-run homer over the right-center field fence.

Over the next two innings, Nihon Bunri made their way to a 2-2 tie: two back-to-back doubles in the top of the second by Yoshida (吉田雅俊) and Y. Takahashi (高橋義人) for the first run and a solo homer in the third inning by J. Takahashi (高橋隼之介) over the left field fence for the second run.

The game would remained knotted at 2 until the bottom of the 6th when Chukyodai Chukyo sent 11 batters to the plate and scored 6 runs on 5 hits, 2 walks, and an HBP. If you were a Nihon Bunri fan, you just had to cringe because it wasn't a very pretty inning.

And it all started off innocently enough with a ground out to second, followed by a walk to Morimoto (森本隼平). After that, things slowly started to unravel for Nihon Bunri:

• a wild pitch moved Morimoto to second
• Yamanaka (山中渉伍) picked up a hit that probably should have been handled by the shortstop (ruled a hit). It was a tough play though.
• Kunitomo (国友賢司) tried to lay down a squeeze, but failed when Ito (伊藤直輝) purposely threw the ball outside
• Kunimoto still ended up getting on base on a hotshot that deflected off the third baseman's glove over to short. But by the time the shortstop was ready to throw the ball, everyone was safe (ruled an infield hit).

Ito managed to strike out Kawai (河合完治) for the second out, but that brought Dobayashi to the plate. Dobayashi nailed an 0-1 hanging slider into left field to break a 2-2 tie and give Chukyodai Chukyo a 4-2 lead.

And then more unraveling:

• An HBP to the next batter re-loaded the bases.
• Ito hit a high chopper back to the mound that Ito grabbed and turned to throw to first on, but neither the first baseman nor the second baseman were covering the bag. Another run scored and the bases remained loaded.

And then Shibata (柴田悠介) drilled one over the left fielder's head for a bases clearing double. And just like that, Nihon Bunri found themselves training by 6-runs.

The next two innings saw both teams exchange 2 runs that left Nihon Bunri still trailing by 6 runs heading into the top of the 9th.

Chukyodai Chukyo put Dobayashi back on the mound in the top of the 9th. He recorded the first two outs of the inning on a strike out looking and a ground out to short. And then he fell apart... Just 1 strike away from ending it all...

After walking Kitte (切手孝太) on 6 pitches, he threw a 1-2 wild pitch that allowed Kitte to advance to second. J. Takahashi managed to work the count to 3-2 (he also nailed a hanging 2-2 slider that just went foul) before driving a ball into the gap in left-center for an RBI double.

Dobayashi went to 1-2 on Takeishi (武石光司), but once again, the batter fought off some tough pitches to even the count at 2. On the 7th pitch of the at bat, Takeishi hit a liner to right that rolled all the way to the wall (right fielder couldn't stop it) and Takeishi had himself an RBI triple. Nihon Bunri cut Chukyodai Chukyo's lead to 4.

The next batter, Yoshida (吉田雅俊), hit a pop-up in foul territory that should have been easily caught by the third baseman, but ended up dropping harmlessly to the ground. Dobayashi hit Yoshida on the next pitch and was quickly relieved by Morimoto.

With the count 3-2, Y. Takahashi fouled off 2 pitches before working out a walk to load the bases. And that brought up Ito, who proceed to hit the ball through the left side to score 2 more runs and make it 10-8.

Pinch-hitter Ishizuka followed with another single into left that pulled Nihon Bunri to within 1 run of tying the game.

With the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on first, Wakabayashi (若林尚希) nailed a hard liner to third that was caught for the final out of the inning. Chukyodai Chukyo managed to hold on for a 10-9 win over Nihon Bunri.

Key Offensive Players
Nihon Bunri: J Takahashi (高橋隼之介) 4-for-5, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI; Y. Takahashi (高橋義人) 3-for-3, BB, 2B, 2 R, RBI; Ito (伊藤直輝) 1-for-5, 2 RBI

Chukyodai Chukyo: Yamanaka (山中渉伍) 3-for-6, 3 R; Dobayashi (堂林翔太) 3-for-4, BB, 2B, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI; Shibata (柴田悠介) 2-for-5, 2B, 3 RBI

Nihon Bunri

Chukyodai Chukyo

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Some other news and notes:

...Chukyodai Chukyo wins it (out of 4,041 high schools that competed).

...Sanspo has pictures from the stands from the final day of the Koshien.

...The final attendance numbers are in: over the 15-day event, 812,000 people attended the games. For those wondering, 47,000 were in attendance for the Finals game on Monday afternoon.

...Kazuhiro Kiyohara was one of the 47,000 in attendance on Monday. Kiyohara was also on hand to watch the opening ceremonies and the opening game back on the 8th.

...And some interesting numbers:

• Chukyodai Chukyo became the 3rd team this tournament and the 64th team in tournament history to record a hit in every inning of a game (Finals games).
• Chukyodai Chukyo tied the record for most double by a team in a tournament with 19.
• Chukyodai Chukyo's Dobayashi tied the record for most double in a tournament with 6.
• Chukyodai Chukyo's Kawai set a new tournament record for most total bases with 28. The previous high was 27 held by three players.

...The Koshien will be creating special "Hero Bricks," dedicated to the heroes of this year's Koshien.

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