The Japan All-High School Baseball Team played a practice game against Palm Spring High School on the 2nd.

Yosuke Shimabukuro started the game for Japan and tossed two shutout innings (0 H, 2 BB, 3 SO).  Shinta Hifumi also pitched and did not allow any hits or walks and struck out 2 in his outing (not sure how many innings).

Daiki Maehira and Tetsuto Yamada both apparently hit for the cycle with Maehira going 5-for-6 with 6 RBI and Yamada going 5-for-5 with 5 RBI.

Here is a list of high school players that have submitted letters of intent (in other words, high school players that will be eligible for the 2010 draft).

I will update this list as more names become available.

It seems Shinta Hifumi wouldn't mind pursuing a career as a position player instead of a pitcher.  The Hiroshima Carp have actually listed Hifumi as a position player while the Nippon Ham Fighters have him listed as both a pitcher and a position player.

Incidentally, Hifumi went 12-for-21 (including a homer) during the Summer Koshien.

Here is the US game schedule for the Japan All-High School Baseball Team:

Venue: Urban Youth Academy Baseball Field

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The Japan All-High School Baseball Team also played a practice game against first and second year college students from Kindai on Sunday and beat them, 3-2. All pitchers on the roster, other than Masataka Watanabe (he wasn't feeling well) pitched in the game; Yosuke Shimabukuro entered the game in the 9th with a 3-2 lead and tossed a shutout inning in relief while topping out at 141km/h.

Today was also their last day of practice.  The team will head to the US tomorrow.

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See also:

Japan All-High School Baseball Team's US Schedule

Japan All-High School Baseball Team 2010

The 2010 National Athletic Tournament will be taking place between 9/26 and 9/30.

The following 12 high schools will be taking part in the tournament:

Alternates: Saga Gakuen (Saga) - 2nd Round and Riseisha (Osaka) - 3rd Round

The 2010 National Athletic Tournament (Rubber Baseball) will be taking place between 9/26 and 9/29.

The following 10 high schools will be taking part in the tournament:

Alternate: Ueda Nishi (Nagano) - 1st round

The people of Okinawa all appear to have caught the Konan bug.  Seems about 4,000 people packed Naha airport yesterday to welcome the team and about another 3,000 showed up at the victory ceremony later in the day.

The team will now make the media rounds today.

The Japan All-High School Baseball Team will get together beginning on the 26th and work out in Japan until the 30th.  They will then head out to Los Angeles on the 31st.  Their schedule in the US includes four games against the Urban Youth Academy and a chance to catch two ballgames (Dodgers vs Phillies on the 1st and Angels vs Indians on the 6th).  The team will then return home on 9/8.

The 55th Annual High School Rubber Baseball Tournament begins on 8/25.

The following are the brackets (I'll try to keep these updated over the course of the tournament):

*Also known as SoDai Gakuin

The Japan High School Baseball Federation released the 18-man roster for the team that will be heading out to the US to play in a few friendly matches.

UPDATE 8/30/2010 7:18pm JST - Masataka Watanabe was taken off the roster with pneumonia.