Keio WINS!

And so Waseda goes DOWN and Keio wins in a blaze of glory! Whee!

I was at Kamagaya today for the Fighters-Eagles ni-gun game, because I had an exchange day off from work and I missed my "summer family". Kamagaya was a ton of fun, but I'm going to need a while to crop photos and write up that one. The Fighters won and I spent half the game talking to people. I kept checking my phone to see the Soukeisen score, though, and when it was over, I tagged another college baseball fan at Kamagaya like "Keio won!" and he agreed, "Hooray!"

But over at Jingu, Keio beat Waseda 6-4 to take home their first championship since the fall of 2004.

It was a rematch of the starters from Saturday, Yuki Saitoh for Waseda and Daisuke Takeuchi for Keio. Saitoh's control was apparently pretty lousy; in the second inning after Hayata Itoh scored a legitimate run on an RBI single by Kazuma Takeuchi (who was out stretching it into a double), Saitoh walked both Yamasaki and Nagasaki. They advanced to 2nd and 3rd on a wild pitch to Daisuke Takeuchi, and then there was ANOTHER wild pitch, where Yamasaki scored, and Nagasaki ALSO tried to score on the wild pitch and was out. So it was 2-0.

Saitoh was out of the game after 3 innings, and Yuya Fukui took over for him, and in the 5th inning, Naoki Yamaguchi hit a 2-run homer off Fukui (trying to disprove my claim that he is the worst leadoff batter in Keio history, though today he was batting 3rd) to make it 4-0.

Waseda finally got on the board in the 5th inning, when Yuya Watanabe and Ayuki Matsumoto found themselves standing on 2nd and 3rd base after a wild pitch to Hiroki Matsunaga... who then hit a 2-RBI single to center to cut the lead in half and make it 4-2.

Tatsuya Ohishi came out to the mound to kick ass and take names in the top of the 6th; but he got two quick outs and then Yamasaki singled to right, and Nagasaki walked. Ryuta Iba pinch-hit for Takeuchi and singled to center; Waseda centerfielder Koki Sasaki misplayed the ball and Yamasaki and Nagasaki scored, making it 6-2.

Waseda's Koji Udaka hit a 2-run homer off Keio's Koji Fukutani in the bottom of the 8th to make it 6-4. But that's all Waseda would get. Fukutani gave up a hit to Yuya Watanabe in the bottom of the 9th, then got Matsunaga and Habu to fly out. For whatever reason, Hironori Tanaka pitched the last out of the game and got Shota Sugiyama to ground to short, and that's how it ended, at 6-4.

Ohishi played centerfield for the 9th inning in order to keep his bat (and maybe his arm) available for later use. Clever that, Ohtake-kantoku.

Tomorrow starts the rookie tournament! I wish I could go, but I can't. Only 1st-years and 2nd-years can participate, and it's generally guys you don't see playing much during the regular season.

And next week is the All-Japan College Ball Tournament, which is also a lot of fun to watch, even if Yutaka Ohtsuka made fun of me today for seeing him LOSE there last year. Whatever. It's between June 8th and 13th, between the Tokyo Dome and Jingu, and between the winners of all the college leagues in the country. Keio's first game is on the 9th at 4:30pm at Jingu. I may make it for part of that game, but after that can't go until the semifinals on the 12th; I'm *hoping* the final four are Tokai, Keio, Tohoku Fukushi, and Toyo, but who knows what will ACTUALLY happen.