12U BWC: Japans needs Walk-Off Single to keep clean Slate
Japan wins against Mexico 5-4 to finish first round with 6-0 record
Tien-Mou/Taipei City. Japan remains its keep slate at the II 12U Baseball World Cup with a 5-4 victory over Mexico in their final first round match on Thursday afternoon at Tien-Mou Stadium in Taipei City. However Japan needed a two-out walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to keep Mexico out of victory lane. Both teams already were qualified for the quarterfinals.
In the beginning it looked like a lopsided win for Japan. Daichi Aoki and Tomoharu Moriya hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the first to give them a 4-0 lead. Afterwards though Japan’s offense was shut down and weren’t able to do anything against Mexican pitching. This allowed Mexico to get back into the game. A wild pitch in the third and an error in the fourth helped them to cut the deficit to 2-4. In the sixth Hector Vargas tied the game with a two-out, two-run double.
In the bottom half of the sixth, Japan led off with Tomoki Ouchi, who reached on an error at short. A sac bunt not only moved him to second but all the way to third. Following a strikeout for the second out Koyo Mizushima ended the game hitting a 1-2 pitch off Kevin Garcia through the middle for a walk-off single.
On Friday Mexico will face Venezuela in the quarterfinals. Japan will square off with Panama in the afternoon. Both games will be played at Tien-Mou Stadium.
| Japan | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | so | po | a | lob |
| MIZUSHIMA Koyo cf | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| IKEDA Kohei 1b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| OBA Shogo 1b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| KIKUTA Hirokazu ph/1b | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| UEDA Taiyo 2b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| AOKI Daichi c | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| MORIYA Tomoharu ss | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| NINOMIYA Kosuke lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| TAKAMIZU Hidemasa rf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SUZUKI Ryusei rf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| OUCHI Tomoki ph | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| NAKAJIMA Hiromu 3b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| SAWAMURA Shota ph | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| YAGIHASHI Sora p | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SATO Ichiro p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ISHII Yuki ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 23 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 10 | 6 |
Score by Innings R H E
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Mexico.............. 001 102 - 4 10 4
Japan............... 400 001 - 5 8 1
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Note: 2 outs, 1 runner LOB when the game ended.
E - BALLESTEROS 2(2); CASTILLO(2); VARGAS(1); NINOMIYA(1). DP - JPN 2. LOB -
MEX 6; JPN 6. 2B - ZAZUETA(2); VARGAS(1). HR - AOKI(2); MORIYA(1). SH -
SAWAMURA(2). SB - NINOMIYA(7). CS - NAKAJIMA(1).
| Japan | ip | h | r | er | bb | so | wp | bk | hbp | ibb | ab | bf | fo | go | np |
| YAGIHASHI Sora | 2.2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 13 | 1 | 6 | 38 |
| SATO Ichiro W | 3.1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 15 | 4 | 2 | 44 |
