Japan and Team USA put on quite a show in the final of this Baseball Week. Thanks to home runs by Jake Munroe and Ayuto Matsushita, the game was back and forth at first, but with six runs in the sixth inning, the Asian team sealed the victory.
The game began with Japanese starter Yuto Nakamura blowing the Americans away with the hardest fastball of the tournament, and when his teammates immediately scored three runs, it looked like it was going to be a tough game for Team USA, but they regrouped and responded with two runs in their next at-bat.
In the fifth inning, Team USA even took a bold lead thanks to a two-run home run by Jake Munroe, but now it was the Asians’ turn to respond, and they did not disappoint. First, there was a Japanese 2-run home run by Ayuto Matsushita, but that was just the beginning. Immediately after that, they launched a 4-run rally, suddenly putting a five-run lead on the board.
Japan's lead was never threatened again, and since they even added another point, the final score was 10-4.
(Photo: Jolein Zijlstra)