A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the start of Japan's National High School Baseball Tournament, which came to an end yesterday. Last year's final game saw Komadai Tomakomai and Waseda Jitsugyo play 15 innnings of 0-0 ball, followed the next day by another 8 innings of scoreless action before Waseda won 1-0 in the 9th inning.*
In this year's tournament a number of games were tied going into the 8th or 9th innings or went to extra innings, and one contest that had to be replayed due to the 15 inning rule, so all in all it was an excellent tournament.
The final pitted Saga Kita High School, of Saga Prefecture, against Koryo High School of Hiroshima Prefecture. Neither team had ever won the tournament before and both were somewhat surprising entries in the final game. Koryo took a 2-0 and then a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 8th inning before their pitcher allowed Saga Kita to load the bases on two singles and a walk. Koryo's pitcher walked in a run, making the score 4-1 but keeping the bases loaded. Saga Kita's next batter stepped to the plate and blasted only the 2nd grand slam home run in the championship game's 89 year history to put S.K. up 5-4. While the top of the 9th saw Koryo attempt a move from 1st to 3rd on a sacrifice bunt, resulting in the batter and runner both being called out, Saga Kita's pitcher was able to close it out on a strikeout. Highlights of the game, inning by inning, can be seen here: <http://koshien.asahi.co.jp/highlight/data/20070822/1/20070822_1.html>
Two years in a row now we've seen incredibly interesting, competitive tournaments at Koshien. While the end of the tournament signals the end of summer, watching this game just makes me look forward to next year.
* At the National Tournament Level in Japan a game that is tied after 15 innings is halted and replayed completely the next day.
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