Friday, Aug. 18, 2006

NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Pref. (Kyodo) Komadai Tomakomai of Hokkaido came within two wins of claiming its third straight title in the National High School Baseball Championship after overcoming a four-run deficit to beat Hyogo's Toyodai Himeji 5-4 in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Hokkaido's Komadai Tomakomai ace Masahiro Tanaka pitches against Hyogo's Toyodai Himeji during a National High School Baseball Championship quarterfinal game at Koshien Stadium on Thursday. KYODO PHOTOS

Komadai Tomakomai tied the game with a four-run sixth inning and scored the go-ahead run in the seventh on an infield single by leadoff man Tadao Mitani to set up a semifinal meeting with Chiben Wakayama, who edged Tokyo's Teikyo 13-12 with a dramatic ninth-inning rally in the day's other game at Koshien Stadium.

Komadai Tomakomai, aiming to become the first team in 73 years to win the annual tournament for three years in a row, was held to one hit through five innings by Toyodai Himeji southpaw Kinya Tobiishi before mounting a comeback.

Suguru Kobayashi walked with one out and Mitani singled to left field, followed by consecutive run-scoring hits by Yuya Miki, Ryuya Nakazawa and Atsushi Honma as the Hokkaido school pulled even and chased Tobiishi from the mound.

Chiben Wakayama cleanup hitter Ryohei Hashimoto belts a three-run homer in the ninth inning of a National High School Baseball Championship quarterfinal game against Tokyo's Teikyo.

In the next inning, Yoshitsugu Yamaguchi drew a leadoff walk from reliever Masahiro Inui and took third on a sacrifice bunt and a groundout before scoring what turned out to be the winning run on Mitani's infielder hit to first base.

Komadai Tomakomai ace Masahiro Tanaka had another shaky start and allowed four runs and nine hits, including a two-run homer by Ryo Hayashizaki in the first and an RBI double from Tobiishi in the fourth. Tanaka hung on to pitch a complete game with 11 strikeouts.

In the second quarterfinal, Chiben Wakayama squandered a six-run lead by allowing Teikyo to score two runs in the eighth and eight times in the ninth, but it battled back with a five-run bottom half.

After Teikyo sent 11 batters to the plate in its ninth-inning rally, capped by a three-run homer by Hayato Numata, Chiben Wakayama capitalized on the wildness of the Tokyo school's three pitchers, who combined to issue five walks while giving up two hits and hitting a batter with a pitch.

Cleanup hitter Ryohei Hashimoto pulled Chiben Wakayama within 12-11 with a three-run homer and pinch-hitter Hiroto Aoishi delivered a game-tying single. Katsuhito Furumiya then drew a bases-loaded walk from Yuya Okano for the winning run.

Chiben Wakayama had a tournament-record five homers, including a seventh-inning two-run drive by Ryosuke Hiroi that made him only the fourth player in the tournament's history to hit four homers in a single championship. A total of seven homers in the slugfest was also a tournament record in a single game.

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