July 15th Fukuhara v Ogasawara - Ogasawara rolls on

Ogasawara's second straight victory against the Tigers received a big help from Ogasawara who drove in two runs off a poor pitch from Fukuhara. Sakai owner who was at the game was not pleased and only spoke briefly to reporters. The time is long overdue when Fukuhara should be dropped to the second team. Sajikahara could profitably join him as he has been a waste of space since being brought up. Once again Arai was at six with Sakurai at three this time. For all the difference it made they may as well have played Fukuhara at three. Whilst Mayumi may worry about the left/right issue it makes no difference to the results or to team performance. Score

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Dragons  0 2 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 6 14 0
Tigers   0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1  6 0

Starting lineups

Dragons
1. Ibata (Short)
2. Araki (Second)
3. Morino (Third)
4. Blanco (First)
5. Wada (Left)
6. Fujii (Centre)
7. Koike (Right)
8. Tanishige (Catcher)
9. Ogasawara (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Hirano (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (Second)
3. Andoh (Right)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Brazell (First)
6. Arai (Third)
7. Toritani (Short)
8. Kanoh (Catcher)
9. Fukuhara (PItcher)

Andoh was replaced at right by Sakurai before the game started.

The first innings was entirely quiet, no one on base and no one walking. Dragons second was different as, with two out, Fukuhara ran into trouble against the bottom of the order. First Fujii hit to right and then Fukuhara repeated the mistake giving up a right hit to Koike as well. He walked Tanishige to load the bases and faced Ogasawara. The pitch was careless and casual and Ogasawara hit nicely to centre driving in two runs 2-0 Dragons, runners on first and second. Ibata grounded out to end what had been an embarrassing innings from Fukuhara. Kanemoto responded in the Tigers second with a two base hit and reached third on a Brazell ground out. Arai then grounded out in a display of stupid batting difficult to equal. He has been hitting deep flies to centre recently and one of these would have been perfect for a sacrifice fly but no - a ground out to first. Toritani then struck out and a chance to reduce the score had been lost. The third was quiet as both pitchers were solid and both showed some very nice pitching to keep the batters off base.

Dragons fourth saw Fukuhara slip in another poor pitch, this time to Wada. He hit to left for a solo home run 3-0 Dragons. One out later Koike hit but then fell in a Tanishige double play. Tigers fourth saw Sakurai walk with one out but he also succumbed to a double play, this time from Kanemoto. Dragons fifth was quiet. Ogasawara can't pitch that deep and ran into trouble in the Tiges fifth. With one out Arai had a two base hit. A Toritani hit took him to third and with Kanoh out Mayumi brought on Takahashi (pinch hitter). He hit to right driving in a run 3-1 Dragons runners on first and second. Hirano grounded out though and the innings was over. Fukuhara who hadn't had the consistency necessary was replaced by Tsutsui. He wasn't wonderful either, and gave up a leadoff hit to Morino. Morino doesn't usually prosper against Tigers but had a good game this night. The second hit was to Fujii who had a good night as well. but Koike flew out to end the innings. Tigers sixth saw Ogaswara's struggles continue. With Sekimoto out, Sakurai hit. Then Kanemoto walked and Tigers had runners on first and second. Brazell flew out and moved Sakurai round to third and this was enough for Ochiai who brought in Kawahara. Significantly he also brought in Hidenori at right. Kawahara got Arai to fly out and end the innings.

Tsutsui returned for the Dragons seventh which proved to be an innings too far. Hidenori proved his value by hitting a solo home run 4-1 Dragons and the knockout blow. Ibata and then Araki hit and Morino walked to load the bases all with one out. Things looked serious for the Tigers. Blanco struck out looking and then Wada grounded out and Tigers escaped with only one run damage. In Tigers seventh Kawahara gave up a lead off hit to Toritani but then got Kanoh to fly out. Ochiai then switched pitchers to Takahashi who got Hiyama (pinch hitter) to fly out. Takahashi was then replaced by Asao in an attempt to keep the Tigers off balance and this succeeded nicely as Lin (pinch hitter) also flew out. Sajikihara took Dragons eighth and started with a leadoff hit to Fujii. Asao bunted him to second and then a hit from Tanishige drove him to third. Hidenori stepped up to the plate again and this time drove the runner home with a hit to third 5-1 Dragons, runners on first and second. Ibata then hit into a double play but the Dragons were further ahead. Asao then pitched poorly as well walking first Sekimoto and then Sakurai. Once again a Tigers batter would bat poorly, Kanemoto grounding out to first and moving Sekimoto round to second. Asao took heart and struck out Brazell and then got Arai to ground out to short and escape without damage. Dragons ninth was pitched by Watanabe who couldn't summon up the interest and left a pitch in the zone for Morino to hit over the fence for another solo home run 6-1 Dragons. This was the end of the scoring and the rest of the Dragons innings was quiet. Tigers ninth with Nelson as the closer was quiet and all three batters were out meekly and without trouble. Dragons victory.

A well worked victory with the Dragons taking advantage of loose pitching. The last three innings yielded three runs and two to Hidenori who is hardly the most terrifying of batters. Once again the Tigers had been disinterested and poor. No one had hit when needed and lack of application had been all around.