High School Baseball
The 1997 summer national high school baseball tournament started on August 8, 1997 with 49 teams participating. Each of Japan's 45 prefectures are represented by a single high school, while Tokyo and Hokkaido have 2 schools apiece (Tokyo East and West, Hokkaido North and South).
Chiben Wakayama High School defeated Kyoto's Heian High School 6 to 3 in the finals on August 21, before a near capacity crowd at Koshien Kyujo. Heian's ace pitcher, Tomoya Kawaguchi, the most highly touted player in the tournament had showed signs of tiring in the sem-finals the day before, but didn't run out of gas until the seventh inning of the final game. Chiben Wakayama got six hits off of Kawaguchi after the sixth inning and with the help of two walks, three sacrifices and a fielder's choice, scored four runs in the last three frames to win their first summer championship.
Chiben Wakayama starting pitcher Toshiyuki Fujitani and reliever Akihide Shimizu held Heian to just 6 baserunners and 3 runs. While Chiben used five different pitchers in the tournament, Heian relied on Kawaguchi throughout. Kawaguchi threw 820 pitches in the tournament. In the three days prior to the final, the big lefty threw 130, 143 and 120 pitches. Against Chiben Wakayama, Kawaguchi threw 157 pitches.
Despite reaching the finals in a 1 to 0 extra-inning semi-final victory, Chiben Wakayama was an offensive powerhouse. For the tournament, Chiben batters hit .406, slugged .543, and reached base at a .493 clip. Chiben made 8 errors in the tournament, including 2 in the semi-finals, but were perfect against Heian in the final game.
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