BASEBALL/ International school from Kyoto wins Koshien title

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The Kyoto International Senior High School baseball team celebrates its first National High School Baseball Championship at Hanshin Koshien Stadium on Aug. 23. (Emiko Arimoto)

NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Prefecture--Kyoto International Senior High School, founded after World War II as an educational institute for Korean residents in Japan, won its first National High School Baseball Championship here on Aug. 23.

The school, located in Kyoto’s Higashiyama Ward, defeated Kanto Daiichi High School from Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward 2-1 in 10 innings to bring the summer tournament title to Kyoto Prefecture for the first time in 68 years.

It was the first time for Kyoto International to reach the championship game at Hanshin Koshien Stadium.

The school was established in 1947 as Kyoto Chosen Junior High School.

In 1999, Kyoto International set up a baseball club, and it became the first international school to compete in the Kyoto prefectural qualifying tournament for the National High School Baseball Championships.

But the team was trounced 34-0 by Kyoto Seisho High School in the first round.

Noritsugu Komaki, the second baseman for Kyoto Seisho at the time, recalled that players on the international school team struggled with even the fundamentals of the sport.

Through an acquaintance, Komaki was later asked to coach Kyoto International, and he became the team’s manager at the age of 24.

In 2021, the school competed in the spring national championship for the first time. Although the team lost in the second round, Komaki said he felt the mysterious power of Koshien.

His players’ movements and skills improved like never before after that loss.

That summer, the team advanced to the final four in the national championship.

Some members of this year’s team said they came to play for the school after being inspired by the success in 2021.

In the spring national championship this year, Kyoto International was eliminated in a walk-off in the first round.

But after that experience, Komaki said the players changed.

One by one, they joined individual training sessions at night. After general practices, the players would go to an indoor practice field from around 8 p.m. to hone their batting skills.

Before long, all of the players would stay at the practice field until just before the 10:30 p.m. roll call at the team dormitory.

They worked on their defense, too.

In the five games leading up to the semifinals, the team made only five errors.

Throughout the tournament, Kyoto International’s batters showed great concentration at the plate and took advantage of the few RBI opportunities that presented themselves.