On 11 April, the University of Tokyo Baseball Club (Tokyo Big6 Baseball League) lost 2-3 against Meiji University in the first game of the opening series. Despite rallying from a two-run deficit to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning, they could not hold off Meiji’s overpowering offense.
UTokyo | 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 | 2
Meiji | 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 X | 3
As the cherry blossoms of Chidorigafuchi moat fall and the trees are left with only leaves, T-shirts have become a common sight, and with it, signaling that the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League has arrived.
Last year, UTokyo had a winless (0-10) and two-win (2-10) record in the spring and fall league respectively, underscoring the team’s struggle in the high-level league. After the graduation of three “Best Nine” selections including Suguru Sakai, and the absolute ace Kouki Watanabe, it was thought that the team would be overwhelmed by a massive skill difference this spring. However, the opening game was a hard, evenly-fought match.
Shinnosuke Matsumoto (Education, B3) took the mound as the starting pitcher. The lefty, who recently announced his desire to play in the pro leagues, showed off an impressive performance. With fastballs nearing 140km/h, and breaking balls of varying speeds, he denied the star-studded Meiji offense of extra base hits and opportunities for runs.
UTokyo’s offense also fought hard. Meiji’s starting pitcher was Touma Yuda, a one-of-a-kind pitcher who played in the Kōshien (Japan’s national high school championship), but his fastballs weren’t able to overpower UTokyo. Keito Arai had a multi-hit game as the fourth batter in the new lineup. He also recorded two stolen bases, sliding ahead of the throws from Meiji’s top prospect catcher, Seiya Fukuhara.
Overall, starting pitcher Matsumoto maintained a decent game, while UTokyo showed off a solid defense on the field. The batting lineup also used their agility against Meiji’s strong pitcher, displaying an “almost” perfect offense with an underdog tactic.
However, “almost” perfect was not enough.
In the bottom of the fourth, with Meiji’s Nanato Sakakibara on base, the following batter Kai Tanoue hit a grounder to second base. Despite an impressive grab by second baseman Ryo Akimoto (Law, B3), he couldn’t make the throw to the short stop at second base for the out. This resulted in runners on first and second with no outs. A sacrifice bunt followed, successfully advancing both runners. With UTokyo not playing a defensive shift, Fukuhara “successfully” hit a ground-out, batting in the first run of the game for Meiji. Furthermore, during the next at-bat, the catcher blocked a low pitch from Matsumoto, but dropped and momentarily lost sight of it, which is when the runner on third took off to steal home. Since pitcher Matsumoto made a swift cover of home base, this was a risky play. However, the runner slid in safely, scoring a ruthless second run.
However, this year’s UTokyo team did not back down. In the bottom of the fifth, they again encountered a predicament, with Meiji having bases loaded and only one out. Matsumoto burned with revenge for earlier, consecutively striking out both Sakakibara and Tanoue, who reached home in the previous inning.
The batting line-up also got fired up in the top of the seventh. After one out, Kousuke Higuchi (Lib Arts, B3) slid headfirst to record an infield hit, stole second, then further advanced to third with a hit from Komura. With runners on first and third base, Ken Akashi (Agriculture, B4) drove a big fly for a double, scoring one run against Meiji’s Eita Yamaguchi. Manager Okubo then sent Yusaku Murao (NS II, B2) as a pinch hitter for his first ever at-bat in the league, to huge cheers from the stands. He perfectly belted the first pitch to left field, which broke through third base and short stop for a hit, batting a run to tie the game.
The game was evenly-matched, with the momentum starting to tilt towards UTokyo. However, Meiji’s offense continued to execute with clinical precision.
Naoki Eguchi (Engineering, B4) was on the mound in the bottom of the eighth. He maintained his strong fastball and nasty breaking balls, while improving his accuracy by a significant margin. Naoki pitched a solid relief after Matsumoto, however, after one out he did allow three consecutive hits to load the bases.
Eguchi induced the next batter to loft a shallow fly to center field, which the center fielder caught off-balance. The runner on third base saw this. He rushed to home base, where the throw from the outfield did not arrive in time, conceding a run and putting Meiji in the lead.
In the final offense at the top of the ninth, it was too difficult to beat the firm relief pitching by Meiji. Despite Komura getting a hit with two outs, the following batter failed to keep the momentum going. This spring season’s team, whose goal was to defeat Meiji, fell just one step short. 【Author & Photos: 宇, 吉, 藏, 流, 風】【Translator・睦】
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Tokyo Big6 Baseball: Game 1 — A Close Contest, but Meiji Prevails with Flawless Execution 2026 IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2025 2026-05-12 06:14:04
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