2017-04-02

Osaka Toin secures 2nd high school invitational title

Osaka Toin High School baseball team members run to the stands for cheering squads at Hanshin Koshien Stadium after clinching the spring invitational title on April 1, 2017. (Mainichi)rnNISHINOMIYA, Japan (Kyodo) -- Osaka Toin High School scored five ninth inning runs to see off Riseisha 8-3 to claim its second national high school invitational championship on Saturday at Koshien Stadium.Osaka Toin, which last won the title in 2012, broke a 3-3, ninth-inning tie on pinch-hitter Ippei Nishijima's two-run home run off Yu Takeda. Three more runs all but sealed the outcome of the first final competed between two representatives from Osaka Prefecture.Before a crowd of over 40,000, Osaka Toin led through solo shots in the first two innings. Kyota Fujiwara hit his second of the day in the sixth for a 3-0 lead.Riseisha, however, tied it in the eighth. With two outs and one on, two singles and a double evened the score, but only momentarily. （April 1, 2017 (Mainichi Japan)rn