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[March 28, 2006]

Baseball: Shinko Gakuen reaches last 8 at high school invitational+

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)NISHINOMIYA, Japan, March 28_(Kyodo) _ Catcher Masateru Osaka delivered a pair of clutch hits as Shinko Gakuen of Hyogo advanced to the quarterfinals of the national high school baseball invitational tournament with a 2-0 win over Chiba's Narita on Tuesday.


Osaka broke a scoreless tie with an RBI double in the seventh inning and singled home another run in the ninth, while right-handers Masaki Yamaguchi and Kenta Hayashi combined on a seven-hitter to lead the Kobe school to its second straight shutout victory.

Shinko Gakuen became the first school to reach the quarterfinals and has gone this far for the first time since 1995, when it last appeared in the annual tournament at Koshien Stadium.

Second baseman Takanori Asakura scored both runs for Shinko Gakuen after reaching on a single and a walk, stealing second twice and coming around to cross the plate both times on Osaka's hits.

Yamaguchi allowed three hits and two walks in 5-1/3 innings before giving way to Hayashi, who worked the rest of the second-round game to pick up his second win. In the first round, Hayashi pitched a seven-hit shutout in a 4-0 win over Nanyo Kogyo from Yamaguchi in the opening game of the tournament last Thursday.

Narita lacked timely hitting and wasted the second straight complete-game effort by Yuki Karakawa.

Earlier on Tuesday, Shun Shirahata hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning as Akita Shogyo edged Tokaidai Sugao of Tokyo 11-10 in a 29-hit slugfest in the final game of the first round.

Akita Shogyo came back from deficits of 6-1 and 8-2 by sending nine men to the plate and scoring four runs each in the sixth and seventh, but Tokaidai Sugao rallied for two runs on four hits to retie the game at 10-10 in the top of the eighth.

Shirahata proved to be the savior for the Akita school, going 3-for-3 with two RBIs at the plate and limiting the damage to two runs over 4-1/3 innings after coming off the bench to replace ineffective starter Yo Sato.

The other second-round game scheduled for the day between Chiben Wakayama and Gifu Johoku was postponed to Wednesday due to rain.

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