A starting pitcher throws a 173-pitch complete game despite a killer heat wave. It’s not a professional baseball game, it’s a Japanese high school baseball game.
It’s the final game of the Toyama Regional Qualifier of the High School Baseball Championship (Summer Goshien) at Toyama Civic Stadium in Toyama, Toyama Prefecture, Japan, on Sept. 29. Right-hander Kaito Ueda, the captain and ace of Toyama Sango, started the game against Toyama North and pitched a nine-inning, three-hit shutout.
He threw a whopping 173 pitches. The game started at noon.
After getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning with one out, Ueda pitched the ninth to end the game. Toyama Sango, who capitalized on their chances early on, won 7-3.
Ueda said, “My teammates encouraged me to throw as hard as I wanted to because it’s okay to score with the bases loaded. I threw with my shoulders relaxed and was able to keep it to one run.”
Toyama Sango advanced to the main round of the 17th Summer Koshien, nine years after their last appearance in 2014. The offensively potent Toyama North had runners on base in every inning, but were held in check by Ueda. The team failed to qualify for the main draw for the first time in 54 years since 1969.
According to Japanese media, Ueda entered the final having thrown a total of 282 pitches in the quarterfinals and two semifinals. The semifinals were held two days earlier on the 27th.
The schedule, the pitch count, and the heat, no matter how you slice it as an ace’s responsibility, are enough to make you think he was overworked. It was the first time Ueda had given up more than two runs in a game.
“I practiced like I was going to die in the winter, so I wasn’t tired,” Ueda said in the postgame press conference. I’m grateful to my teammates for allowing me to come this far.”바카라사이트
The Summer Koshien, now in its 105th year, is a dream event for the top teams in Japanese high school baseball. Forty-nine teams from Japan’s 47 prefectural qualifiers (Tokyo represents east and west, Hokkaido represents north and south) will compete. This year, the group draw will be held on August 3, and the tournament will kick off on August 6 at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and run for 17 days.