Japanese baseball national team romped into the final of an
Olympic test event after beating France 9-4 in a semifinal on
Wednesday morning.
Japan achieved an 8-0 easy lead after the first four innings,
earning four runs in the fourth which made the game
unsuspicious.
Japanese starting pitcher Oba Shota secured a five consecutive
hitless innings, forcing three French batters directly strikeouts
in the fourth.
French manager sent three pitchers in the first six in an effort
to suppress Japanese batters who doubled the Japanese team in the
sixth inning after Ohtsuka Jun made a single.
The French batters only gave Japan a slight hit-back in the top
eighth when four got runs contributed by two doubles of their
teammates.
The Japanese baseballers, regarded as the strongest among the
four teams attending the "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 International
Baseball Tournament started on August 18, has been unbeaten in four
played games.
"They just played very good pitching and I think they will win
the champion in the final," French baseman Rousseau Jerome told
Xinhua.
Japanese manager Hoshino Senichi sent five pitchers in the
nine-inning game, giving French batters various styles of ball
which they could not follow.
Japan will meet another winner of the other semifinal, to be
played by China and the Czech Republic later, in the final on
Thursday evening.
(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2007)