Baseball: Chiben Wakayama claims 4th national high school title

NISHINOMIYA, Japan (Kyodo) -- Chiben Wakayama claimed Japan's prestigious summer high school baseball championship for a record fourth time on Saturday, defeating Takasaki University of Health and Welfare High School with a thrilling 4-3 victory at Koshien Stadium. Representing Wakayama Prefecture, Chiben opened the scoring with two runs in the second inning.

Takasaki of Gunma Prefecture took a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth inning, but Chiben immediately responded, tying the game before scoring the crucial run in the bottom of the inning. In the semifinals, Chiben, the 2021 champion, defeated Yokohama High School and a top contender, Shoki Oda, who had thrown a Koshien-record 156 km/h fastball.

This year's tournament saw 3,363 teams compete in regional qualifiers, with 49 advancing to the national championship. For the first time, five female umpires officiated, marking a departure from the tournament's tradition of using exclusively male officials. Video review was also introduced to enhance the accuracy of umpires' calls.

To combat the intense summer heat, the tournament adopted a two-session schedule, with games played in the morning and evening to avoid the peak heat.