On Friday, we were reminded that the Chunichi Dragons’ catching trade deficit with the Nippon Ham Fighters is not as bleak as it often looks thanks to big night from former Fighter Shingo Usami, while there was disappointment in Fighters land despite their jumping out to a big lead against Kohei Arihara.

The national summer high school championship ended Friday with Kyoto International, originally a Korean school, winning its first title 2-1 in 10 innings over Kanto Dai-ichi. Tournament organizers announced that there were 58 cases of suspected heat stroke. Of those, 37 cases were observed during games with players exhibiting symptoms such as leg cramps, while the other 21 occurred during the post-game “cooling-off” period.

The figure for the entire tourney was a fairly low one despite this year’s heat after it took scheduling measures to allow for cooling-off breaks and shifted games to earlier and later slots to avoid the hottest hours of the day.

Friday’s games

Dragons 8, Giants 2: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Shingo Usami, who was part of the four-player trade that sent Yuya Gunji to the Nippon Ham Fighters, continued to contribute in a limited role for Chunichi, singling in two first-inning runs, off rookie Yuhi Nishidate (1-3) walking and scoring to break a 2-2 tie in the fourth and capping a three-run seventh with a two-run home run. Yuki Okabayashi went 3-for-4 for the Dragons, scoring three runs and singling in a run in the eighth.

Coco Montes singled in the first of two Giants runs in the bottom of the first off Koji Fukutani (1-0) who went six innings.