(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
  Japan opens Premier12 with 5-0 win vs. South Korea
Nederlands
 SAPPORO (Japan) -
Japan, the number one on the world ranking list of the WBSC, opened the inaugural edition of the Premier12 on Sunday (November 8) with a 5-0 shutout-victory vs. South Korea, the number 8 on the ranking list.
The game was played at the Sapporto Dome in Sapporo in front of almost 29,000 spectators.
Both teams and the officials who worked the opening game will now travel to Taiwan, where the preliminary round of the tournament will be played.
On Monday, the opening game will be played between host Taiwan and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Japan collected 12 basehits in today's game, while the Koreans had seven.
Three Japanese pitchers struckout 14 batters.
Dutch scorer Linda Steijger was one of the three Official Scorers assigned to this opening game, being joined by Stephanie Winkler from Germany and American Brian Moore.
...Dutch Official Scorer Linda Steijger on the field...
...in the Sapporo Dome before the game... |
Before the start of the game, the ceremonial first pitch was thrown by South Korean baseball-great Chan-Ho Park.
The righthanded pitcher played 17 years (1994-2010) in the Major League for seven teams, including nine with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he began his big league-career.
Japan opened the score with two runs in the bottom of the second inning off of starter Kwanghyun Kim.
Lead-off hitter Sho Nakata struckout, but reached first base on a wild pitch.
He then advanced when Nobuhiro Matsuda followed with a single.
Moments later, Nakata scored the first run on a double by Ryosuke Hirata.
With one out, the bases got loaded when Shogo Akiyama walked, then the next run was scored on a sacrifice fly by Hayato Sakamoto.
Hirata advanced to third base on the fly, but the inning ended when he was picked out and eliminated in a rundown.
In the third inning, Takeya Nakamura singled with one out and Sho Nakata singled with two outs, which led to a pitching change.
New pitcher Sangwoo Cho walked Nobuhiro Matsuda, but then closed with a strikeout.
Japan added a run in the fifth inning.
With two outs, Sho Nakata singled and Nobuhiro Matsuda walked, then a single by Ryosuke Hirata made it 3-0.
In the sixth, Japan lifted the lead to 4-0 when Hayato Sakamoto homered with one out.
In the meantime, Shohei Otani threw six strong innings.
After retiring the side in the first inning, he walked a batter with two outs in the second inning, but then closed with a strikeout.
He got three outs again in the third, including two strikeouts.
In the fourth, with one out, Otani gave up his first basehit, a single by Hyunsoo Kim, but then was supported with a double play.
This was the lone inning in which Otani didn't register a strikeout.
South Korea got into scoring position for the first time in the top of the fifth inning when it trailed 2-0.
Byungho Park led off with a double, then Ahseop Son walked.
However, Otani then struckout the next three batters!
In the sixth, Otani retired the side again, adding two more strikeouts to bring his total to ten.
He was then relieved by Takahiro Norimoto in the seventh and he also retired the side, including two more strikeouts.
While being only 21 years old, Otani is one of Japan's top pitchers.
This season he pitched for Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and was 15-5 with a 2.24 ERA and started 22 games.
In the top of the eighth, Korea got the bases loaded, but was unable to score.
Pinch-hitter Jaewon Oh led off with a single, then Sangsu Kim singled with one out.
A 2-out walk for Keunwoo Jeong loaded the bases, but another strikeout ended the at bat.
In the bottom of the eighth, Japan added another run on a 2-out double by Tetsuto Yamada.
South Korea then got one more chance of scoring a run in the ninth inning when it got the bases loaded off of closer Yuki Matsui.
Dae-ho Lee led off with a single, then the bases got loaded when Byungho Park and Ahseop Son also singled.
Lee plays for Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks with whom he recently won the Nippon Series.
There, he is a teammate of Dutch pitcher Rick van den Hurk.
However, with the bases loaded and no outs, Matsui followed with a strikeout, an infield-fly then accounted for the second out and a foul-out ended the at bat and the game.
(November 8)
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