(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by WBSC)
  Japan wins Premier12-bronze after 7-inning win vs. Mexico
Nederlands
 TOKYO (Japan) -
Japan has won the Bronze Medal of the inaugural Premier12 after winning 11-1 in 7 innings vs. Mexico on Saturday-afternoon (November 21) in the Tokyo Dome.
Japan decided the lopsided game with a 7-run rally in the second inning and also outhit Mexico, 11-2.
A total of six homeruns was hit in this game!
In the opening round, Japan had won only 6-5 vs. Mexico and was outhit 13-12.
In that game, Sho Nakata was 3-for-3 and batted in five runs, while scoring the sixth himself.
In the Semi-Finals, Japan was eliminated for the Final by South Korea on Thursday.
Japan led 3-0 after eight innings, while its dominating pitching held the Koreans to only one basehit.
But in the ninth inning, South Korea rallied for four runs on five hits to win 4-3.
Recap of this game
Mexico lost its Semi-Final on Friday with a 6-1 score against the USA after a brief 1-0 lead in the fourth inning.
Recap of this game
The Final of the Premier12 will be played later today on Saturday, starting at 7 PM local time (11 AM Dutch time).
In this bronze game, German scorer Stephanie Winkler was the lead scorer and was joined by Cuban Carlos Del Pino and American Brian Moore, who did the play-by-play.
In the 6-man umpiring crew, there were four Americans, including Home Plate Umpire Kevin Sweeney.
At second base was Canadian Tom Grieve, while Jong-Chul Park from South Korea was at third base.
(November 21)
Japan set the tone in the first inning when Tetsuto Yamada homered with two outs off of starter Miguel Peña.
Japan, which was the home team in this game, then rallied for seven runs with two outs in the second at bat on six basehits.
All runs were unearned, but the inning was highlighted by three homeruns!
Akira Nakamura led off with a double, advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Ginjiro Sumitani..
After a grounder accounted for the second out, Nakamura scored when a fielding error was made on a grounder by Hayato Sakamoto, which would have been the third out.
Hereafter, Tetsuto Yamada homered again to lift the lead to 4-0.
When next batter Yoshitomo Tsutsugo singled, a pitching change followed.
Cesar Carillo was then brought in as new pitcher, but he was greeted with a 2-run homerun by Sho Nakata.
Next batter Ryosuke Hirata then walked and hereafter, it was Nobuhiro Matsuda who homered to make it an 8-0 score.
...Japan won the Bronze Medal...
(© Photo: WBSC) |
In the next three innings, Japan was held scoreless, then Mexico was able to score in the top of the sixth inning off of Tomoyuki Sugano.
He had taken over the pitching in the fourth inning for starter Shota Takeda, who had given up only one basehit and struckout three batters.
In the sixth, it was Juan Perez, who led off with a homerun to account for the lone Mexican run.
Perez also had hit the first Mexican basehit in the third inning and so, he registered both hits for his team.
Mexico had reached second base only in the first inning.
In the next at bat, Japan turned a double play and in the third, Perez stranded on first base.
Sugano then retired the side in the fourth and fifth, before giving up the homerun in the sixth.
In the bottom of the sixth, Japan got the run back immediately.
With one out, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo and Sho Nakata walked, then Ryosuke Hirata followed with an RBI-double to make it 9-1.
After Mexico was retired in order again in the top of the seventh, Japan reached the 10-run difference to end the game in the bottom half.
Lead-off hitter Yuhei Nakamura was hit by a pitch and Shogo Akiyama followed with a walk-off, 2-run homerun to make it 11-1.
With that, Japan had scored nine of its eleven runs on homeruns, while the lone Mexican run also was scored on a homerun.
And so, Samurai Japan won the Bronze Medal.
The team stayed unbeaten in Pool B in the preliminary round, then won its Quarter Final game on Monday vs. Puerto Rico 9-3 to reach the Semi-Final.
But then, Japan suffered the stunning loss against South Korea.
Mexico has played a fine tournament under its veteran Manager Mike Brito.
The 81-year old baseball-legend has a long association with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a scout, which earned him four World Series-rings.
Amongst the players he signed, 27 went on to reach the Major League, including pitching-phenom Fernando Valenzuela.
The lefthander made his big league-debut at age 20 in 1981 and then became the only player in history to win both the Rookie of the Year Award and the Cy Young Award in the same season!
Mexico started the preliminary round in Pool B with a surprising 6-4 win vs. Venezuela, which in the end earned them a spot in the Quarter Finals.
Mexico then stunted by winning 4-3 against Canada, which was the unbeaten winner of Pool A.
In the Semi-Finals, Mexico then lost to the USA.
Ending in fourth place earned Mexico 300,000 dollar, while Japan will get 400,000 dollar for finishing in third place.
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