National High School Baseball Championship

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The National High School Baseball Championship (全国高等学校野球選手権大会 zenkoku kōtō gakkō yakyū senshuken taikai) of Japan, commonly known as "Summer Kōshien" (夏の甲子園 natsu no kōshien), is an annual nationwide high school baseball tournament.

The tournament, organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation and Asahi Shimbun, takes place during the school summer vacation and culminates in a two-week final tournament stage in August of 49 teams at Hanshin Koshien Stadium (阪神甲子園球場 hanshin kōshien kyūjō) in the Koshien district of Nishinomiya City, Hyogo, Japan.

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[edit] Background

The 49 schools taking part represent each of the prefectures of Japan (with two from Hokkaido and Tokyo). From mid-June to the end of August, regional tournaments are held to decide who is sent to Koshien.

The rules are the same as in the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament. It is a single elimination tournament with nine inning games. Games are declared official after seven complete innings in the case of suspension due to weather, et cetera, except for the championship game which must be played to completion. For the regional tournaments, games are ended if one team leads by at least ten runs after five innings or seven runs after seven innings, except in the championship games. If an extra inning game is still tied after 15 innings, the game is replayed the next day. Designated hitter is not used. Four umpires are used, except for night games in which two outfield line umpires are added.

The first round pairings and byes are decided by lottery. Thirty-four teams meet in the first round, and 15 teams with byes join at the second round (32 teams play in the second round). Therefore it takes five or six wins to win the championship. Until 2002, the four quarter finals were played in one day, but this was changed to two a day over two days to give the players time off. If rainouts continue for more than three days, four games are played in one day. This occurred in 2003, so the first time the quarter finals were played over two days was actually 2004. To accommodate the extra day, the long tradition of starting the tournament on August 8th was changed to start a day or two early.

Up to four games are played each day until the semifinals. The starting times of each day's games is shown below. Following games are begun about 30 minutes after the previous game ends. Due to the fast pace of the pitching, four games in one day are usually completed before dark.

Day of the tournament 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Round 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st/2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 3rd 3rd Quarter Quarter Semi Final
Games
Start time		 3
10:20		 4
8:30		 4
8:30		 4
8:30		 3
9:30		 4
8:30		 4
8:30		 4
8:30		 3
9:30		 4
8:30		 4
8:30		 2
11:00		 2
11:00		 2
11:00		 1
13:00

[edit] Koshien traditions

  • Every five years, the tournament celebrates the anniversary, and a deep crimson is used for the championship flag.
  • For third year players, a loss at the tournament is referred to as "the summer has ended".
  • The tournament song "The Laurels of Victory Shine on You" is well known.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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