Shingo Saito homered to highlight a 14-hit attack as Fukui Shogyo shut out Nitta of Ehime Prefecture 9-0 in the first round of the 77th national high school invitational baseball tournament on Friday.
Keisuke Hayashi struck out nine and carried a three-hitter into the ninth inning at Koshien Stadium and Yuki Saito got the final two outs to help eliminate Nitta, which was making its first appearance in 15 years in the annual spring tournament. Hayashi also drove in two runs on 2-for-5 hitting. In other first-round games, Isamu Sato went the distance and hit a pair of RBI singles, lifting Ichihasama Shogyo of Miyagi Prefecture to a 5-2 victory over Shutoku of Tokyo. Ichihasama is debuting in the tournament while Shutoku was a quarterfinalist at last summer's national high school championship.
Tenri of Nara blanked Yanagigura of Oita 4-0 thanks to a squeeze bunt by Naotaka Morikawa that opened the scoring in the second inning and a bases-loaded walk drawn by Shusuke Azuma in the eighth. Akinobu Ogura scattered nine hits in pitching a complete game shutout.