2019-04-03

Toho wins last Japanese high school championship of Heisei era

NISHINOMIYA, Japan (April 3, 2019 Mainichi Japan –Kyodo) -- Toho, the Aichi school that won the national high school baseball invitational championship held in the first year of Heisei 30 years ago, won the spring final on Wednesday in the last tournament of the current era.
Toho beat Narashino of Chiba Prefecture 6-0, with captain Takaya Ishikawa a force both on the mound and at the plate. He drove in four runs on two homers and pitched a three-hit shutout in Toho's 30th Spring Koshien appearance.
Ishikawa hit a two-run homer off Narashino starter Shota Yamauchi to spark a three-run first inning, then gave Toho a 5-0 cushion with another in the fifth. He led off the eighth with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly from Rikuto Nagaya.
Toho won for the first time since 1989 and for the fifth time overall. They also won in 1934, 1939 and 1941 when the school was known as Toho Shogyo High School.
The Heisei period ends April 30, and Japan will enter the next imperial era, Reiwa, on May 1.