(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
   Another loss for Team Europe in Asia
Nederlands
 TAICHUNG (Taiwan) -
Team Europe lost 8-3 to the professional NPB Team from Japan on Wednesday-evening (December 9).
For the European squad, this was its seventh loss in the ten games played so far in the Asia Winter Baseball League.
Two games ended in a tie, one was won and that happened against the opponent of today.
Earlier today, the South Korean KBO Team won 15-12 vs. the Chinese Taipei National Training Team.
On Tuesday, Team Europe had the day off.
League-leader Chinese Taipei Training Team then won 2-1 to the professional Taiwan Beer CPBL Team to stay in first place.
The game between the KBO Team (South Korea) and NPB Team (Japan) ended in a 4-4 tie.
Team Europe plays its next game on Thursday (December 10), starting at 12 PM local time (5 AM Dutch time).
The squad then meets league-leader Chinese Taipei Training Team.
(December 9)
Maickel Rietel made his third start of the season for the European squad, which came three days after he had pitched one inning in relief in last Sunday's game.
The righthander retired the first three batters he faced, who all grounded out.
Included therein was a nice play by third baseman Rashid Gerard on a hard grounder by lead-off hitter Shota Tomowaga.
The ball jumped away from Gerard, but he recovered in time to retire Tomowaga at first base in a close play, but the umpire made the right call.
NPB-starter Yuta Kakita also retired the first three batters he faced in the first inning, but he included two strikeouts.
The 23-year old righthander is a rookie in the team of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, which finished in sixth and last place this season in the Central League, one of the two Japanese Major Leagues.
While Kakita was on the big league-roster this year, he didn't pitch for the main squad of the BayStars in the regular season.
The Japanese squad opened the score in the second at bat off of Rietel.
Kazuma Okamoto led off with a single, then scored all the way from first base with one out on a double by Kouki Yamashita.
The next run was added when Yusuke Masago followed with a single.
For Masago, this was only his second run batted in of the season.
His first had come on a homerun.
Masago plays in the organization of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, which this season won the Japan Series.
Dutch professional pitcher Rick van den Hurk played for the team this year after having pitched in South Korea in the previous two years.
Team Europe also got their first baserunners in the second inning.
With two outs, Kakita walked Mattia Mercuri and Maik Ehmcke, but they stranded, as Rashid Gerard closed the at bat with a grounder.
The NPB Team was productive again in the top of the fourth inning.
With one out, Shuhei Takahashi walked and Kouki Yamashita singled (on something that looke like a half check-swing on an inside pitch) to put runners on first and third base.
Rietel followed with a strikeout, but then Iori Katsura contributed with a runscoring single to make it a 3-0 score.
Yuta Kakita continued his dominance in the bottom of the fourth inning.
He retired the side again, including striking out Kevin Weijgertse and Alberto Mineo for the second time.
With this, the righthander had retired the side in three of his four innings so far, had retired seven batters in a row and had not given up a basehit yet.
During his at bat, Mineo fouled off a ball off of his right shin, resulting in a painful encounter with the ball.
The Italian did complete his at bat, but then stayed behind in the dug-out in the top of the fifth, as Alessandro Deotto took over as catcher.
Besides Deotto becoming the new catcher, German Daniel Thieben became the new pitcher for Team Europe when the fifth inning began.
The righthander had an unsuccessful outing.
He began with walks for Shota Tomonaga and Shintaro Yokota.
In the 3 2/3 inning, Thieben had pitched in his previous three outings, he already had walked seven batters.
A flyout followed, but then Kazuma Okamoto singled into rightfield to bring in Tomonaga.
As the ball went by rightfielder Federico Giordani for an error, that also enabled Yokota to score to lift the lead to 5-0.
Hereafter, Thieben was relieved by Diego Fabiani.
The Italian also began with a walk, but then started a double play to end the inning.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Mattia Mercuri led off for Team Europe with a single to break Kakita's No-Hitter.
But he didn't get beyond first base, as the Japanese righthander retired the next three batters.
In the top of the sixth inning, Chris Howard became the third catcher for Team Europe, as he took over for Deotto, who caught only one inning.
But again, the European pitching was unable to stop the Japanese hitters.
Fabiani walked Yusuke Masago (who then stole second base) and then gave up a runscoring single to Iori Katsura.
Hereafter, German Lucas Dickman took over the pitching, but he got the bases loaded when Izuni Hara and Shota Tomonaga also singled.
A sacrifice fly by Shintaro Yokota then lifted the lead to 7-0.
In the bottom of the sixth, Team Europe got another baserunner off of reliever Kojiro Tanabo.
With two outs, the righthander gave up a single to Kevin Weijgertse, which was only the second European basehit in the game.
Weijgertse became the fourth baserunner for Team Europe, then next batter Chris Howard became the fifth when he walked.
For the first time since the second inning, there were now two Europeans on base.
They were left behind, as next batter Federico Giordani was called out on strikes.
But it has to be noted that the Home Plate Umpire called a very low third strike with the ball coming in under the knees of Giordani.
| Standings |
| # | Team | G | W | L | T |
| 1 | Chinese Taipei Training Team | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| 2 | Taiwan Beer CPBL Team | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | KBO Team | 9 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | NPB Team | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| 5 | Team Europe | 10 | 1 | 7 | 2 |
In the bottom of the seventh, Mattia Mercuri led off for Europe with a double off of Tanabo.
This season, the righthander (wearing uniform 116) pitched in the farmteam of the Hanshin Tigers.
With his double, Mercuri had now reached base in all his three at bats and was 2-for-2 with a walk.
With one out, Europe got the bases loaded when Rashid Gerard walked and Luca Martone reached on a check-swing bloop-single.
Martone had just came into the game in the top half of the inning as second baseman.
Hereafter, Daniel Fernandes (who had just entered the game as the new leftfielder) also was called out on strikes on a low pitch.
With the bases still loaded, but now with two outs, Tanabo not only started to loose his control, he also started to pitch wild.
With Sam Buelens in the batter's box, he uncorked a wild pitch that enabled Mercuri to score the first European run.
With a 3-0 count on the Belgian hitter, Tanabo threw another wild pitch, resulting in a walk for Buelens and a run scored by Gerard.
Hereafter, the bases got loaded again when Kevin Weijgertse also walked.
That marked the end for Tanabo, who was relieved by Ren Kajiya, who had given up 13 basehits in the nine innings he had pitched in his previous three outings.
The righthander was greeted with a runscoring single by Chris Howard that narrowed the deficit to 7-3 and kept the bases loaded.
However, three runners were left behind when Federico Giordani hit a comeback-grounder.
In the bottom of the eighth, Team Europe got into scoring position again.
With two outs, Rashid Gerard and Luca Martone singled, but they stranded when next batter Daniel Fernandes struckout.
The NPB Team scored its final run in the ninth inning off of Bryan Sheldon, who had come on in the previous inning.
Naomasa Yokawa led off with a double, then scored on a following single by Kazuma Okamoto, who was 3-for-5 with a run scored and two runs batted in.
Hereafter, second baseman Luca Martone made a nice play on a hard grounder and turned a great double play.
A line drive to first baseman Kevin Weijgertse ended the at bat.
In the bottom of the ninth, Tomohiro Hamada closed the game for the NPB Team.
In his previous two outings, the lefthander had struckout ten batters in six innings and he added two more in this at bat.
Hamada began with a strikeout, then got a grounder, while it started to rain (as was predicted).
He then appeared to also strikeout Chris Howard on a nice pitch through the middle, but this time, the Home Plate Umpire didn't call a strike.
Instead, it was ball four and Howard walked.
But Hamada then followed with a strikeout after all to end the game.
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