Sports round-up

SPORTS ROUND-UP
This week’s games schedule:
April 22
MS Baseball vs St. Maur at Honmoku Field
Varsity Baseball vs Zama at St. Mary’s
Varsity Baseball vs ASIJ at St. Mary’s
HS Track – Kanto Plain Finals at Yokota
Coach Molina St. Mary’s 0, Kinnick 3 Varsity Baseball split with Kinnick last Tuesday, losing the first game 0-3 but taking the second, 13-6. In the first game, the Titans managed only two hits against Kinnick pitcher Daniel Ross. The Titans had their best chances to score early in the game when they loaded the bases in the first and third innings, but failed to drive in any runs. After that, Ross took control and retired 12 batters in a row. Only Angus MacLennan and Kaimi
Miyazawa hit off Ross.
In the second game, the Titan bats finally came alive after being shut out in three games.
The Titans erupted for 10 runs in the first four innings with Angus, Senjae Zhou, Matthew
Liao and Yusuke Takahashi each having two hits. Angus had two doubles, while Matthew
hit a triple. Matthew also took the win, pitching six innings, and giving up six hits while striking out eight batters. Toshiki Aburaki, slowly establishing himself as the team’s
closer, came in the last inning to relieve and secure the win for the Titans. St. Mary’s wil face Zama and ASIJ at home this week. So come out and cheer the Titans! Coach McMil an and Coach Ofstedal St. Mary’s 13, K. International 3 Yesterday the JV Baseball Titans had a big win against K. International School at home. The Titans won 13-3 thanks to fantastic pitching by Sophomore Sung Mo Koo and some
spectacular fielding by the whole team. Freshman Leo Herron turned the tide of the
game with a powerful triple that energized the Titans and secured the win. Coach Wilson and Coach Lamb St. Mary’s 1, YIS 2 The middle school baseball team had a narrow loss to YIS on Saturday, going down 2-1. It was a cold morning at YCAC but things soon heated up once the game got under way. Although it took a little while for Koki Wiley to consistently find his range, he managed to
hold YIS scoreless in the first three innings, al owing no base hits and striking out nine with his fastball regularly thudding into catcher Cai Rahman’s glove before the batters
had time to swing. The YIS pitcher, though considerably slower, had great accuracy and enough variations to keep our batters guessing, and although we had several base hits we were unable to convert any into points. Shinemon Akiyama took over the pitching in
the fourth inning and grew in confidence and consistency over the remainder of the game. With runners on first and second, a missed catch in the outfield gave YIS the chance to run in two scores. YIS also changed pitchers, and although the second pitcher didn’t have the same accuracy, he threw harder and his side-arm delivery made him hard to read. Things stayed tight over the last three innings, and on two occasions the Titans had bases loaded but only managed to bring one runner home in the bottom of the seventh. Special mention to Jae Hyung Cho who went 3-4, singling in the first, third and
sixth innings, and to Soma Kasahara who was electric in his position at short stop. This
was one of those games that got away. We out-hit YIS 6-1 but stil found ourselves on the Coaches Ichikawa, Vogt, and Dogra Fourth place, Kanto Plain Track Meet at Yokota St. Mary’s Track and Field team competed in their fourth meet at Yokota Air Base on April 20 under the cold rain and wind. By now, midway through the season, many of the athletes and coaches are used to such a climate, but not with the biggest number of entries ever held at Kanto, nearly 1,800 entries. For this reason, the meet started an hour before our usual starting time. We left St. Mary’s at 6 a.m. Despite all the unusual conditions, our boys are starting to appear in the top 5 for each event, and thus finished fourth place overall.
First, I would like to recognize our 4x800 team — Ryosuke Ogata, Nate Klein, Masa
Yoshida and Alistair Kershaw — for qualifying for the Far East with a time of 8:56.39, just
one second off first place.
For the 100m, Taisei Igarashi came in fourth place with a time of 12.23, fol owed by Issey
Kishi with 12.28. In the 4x100 relay, with a very smooth baton exchange, Taisei, Kazuho
Kawashima, Alex Kang and Issey came in third place, tied with Kinnick. In the 200m, again
Taisei had a good first half, coming in fourth place with a time of 25.29, and with Issey just 0.2 seconds behind. For the 400m, Ali Kershaw — just recovered from his leg injury — came in third place with 55.30, with Nate behind him in fifth place with 55.37. In the 3000 meters, team captain Koh Terai came in second place with a time 10:34.96, qualifying him for the Far
East.
In the field events, rookie Ryan Chisolm came in sixth place with a jump of 1.60m, the
best jump for our team. Insik Chung, who missed his 110m-hurdle race, made up for his
error with a jump of 5.14m, worth 2 points for the team. St. Mary’s track team has been in the C rank for few years, but finally, we are starting to see the end of that dark tunnel. The boys are serious about the sport, and are beginning to become more responsible for their actions. We wil stay strong and move forward as we steam off to Yokota Air Base this weekend for our finals. This will also be our last
Coach Fradale 6th place, Kanto Plain Track Meet at Yokota The St. Mary’s community might be able to tell who is on the track and field team over the next few days as their coughs and raspy voices advertise them after a very cold, windy, and rainy day at our April 20 Yokota meet. We definitely learned some strong lessons on the need for layered clothing and keeping the muscles warm before competition. Competing with eight other schools, St. Mary’s middle school came in a humbling sixth place. Sprints continue to be a challenge this season. In the 100m and 200m we were unable to place in the top 10. In the 400m Gaku Hamasaki placed 10th with 62.61. Although we
didn’t see many place high in races, the coaches are proud to see personal best records for these sprinters: Koki Azuma, Ekamjot Bedi, Captain Masatsugu Kataoka, Ray
Kiyoshima, Tenyu Kuboya, Jack MacLennan, Tatsuhito Matsumoto, Ryo Mochizuki,
Anmol Shah, Ryan Shappell, and Riku Yokoyama.
Distance runners did slightly better in terms of placing in the top 10; in the 800m Ricky
Nunez placed second with 2:29.38, Rota Suzuki was right behind him in third place with
2:29.60, Riku Yokoyama took fifth with 2:33.97, and Yuki Aoyama was on Riku’s heels,
taking sixth with 2:33.98. For the 1600m we were unable to place in the top 10. In the 3200m, Taisei Kitahara placed fifth with a time of 11:42.62 and Leonard Musahl came in
tenth with a time of 12:10.87. More significant than the placements, however, were the incredible number of personal best records. Considering the awful weather, the coaches were just thankful no one was seriously injured, and we were impressed to see new personal best times for Leonardo A’de Lima, Fredrik Ahlqvist, Ryusei Aomi, Yuki Aoyama,
Jino Arai, Do Kyoung Heo, Kenji Horikawa, Kazuma Kawamura, Taisei Kitahara, Ken
Minamoto, Leonard Musahal, Captain Leon Pokrovsky, Fergus Ryan, Rota Suzuki, and
Gregory Tanaka.
For hurdles, Kenji Horikawa placed 10th for the 100m hurdles with a 20.08 time and a new
personal best. We were unable to place in the top 10 for the 300m hurdles, but Kento
Taira has a new personal best with 56.4.
Only one team ran relays: our 4x400 team. While they placed fifth, Gaku Hamasaki,
Masatsugu Kataoka, Taisei Kitahara, and Rota Suzuki are commended for braving the
rain and finishing with a time of 4:24.76
In field events, Ekamjot Bedi earned fourth place with a 23.54 throw in discus. We were
unable to place in the top 10 in the shot put, however. In the high jump, Ryan Shappell
came in seventh with a 1.45m jump and Gaku Hamasaki also came in seventh with a 4.01m
long jump. Both Ryan Shappell and Tommy Kim improved their personal best high jumps
at this meet. As we wind down this season, it is gratifying to see each student improving their personal best times, jumps, and throws. In addition, we’ve seen students push themselves in terms of being on time, looking out for each other, and trying new sports that they may have thought beyond their abilities. The perseverance and positive attitude of this year’s team are by far their greatest overall achievement. Our season has two more weeks of practice before the finals at Haneda on May 4. We encourage parents and friends to join us on this — L e t ’ s G o T i ta n s ! —

Source: http://alumni.smis.ac.jp/documents/sports/roundup/2008/roundup-2013-04-20.pdf