Japanese national baseball team won the gold medal of "Good Luck
Beijing" 2007 international baseball tournament in the final
against China Thursday evening.
The Japanese team, consisting of collegiate players and domestic
league professionals, beat the host team 5-2 in the final of the
tournament which serves as a test event for the Beijing Olympics
next year.
China made a quick lead by two runs in the top first inning in
which Wang Chao made a RBI triple to let Chinese first batter Hou
Fenglian run.
Jia Yubing, who hit two homers for China in the previous four
games, singled later to allow Wang to make the second run with zero
out.
Japanese tied the game with Tanaka Daijiro's RBI single which
allowed two runs at the bottom second, followed by another two-run
contributed by his teammates to lead the game in the same
inning.
Yoshida Kei added the another run in the bottom sixth before the
final game ended in the top ninth in which Chinese batted a hitless
half.
"I am very proud of my players who win the silver in a close
game to learn international experience," Chinese team manager James
Lefebvre told a press conference.
"They could not make four runs in the second if we catch the
balls," said the manager, revealing that there had been too many
mistakes in the game.
Chinese starting pitcher Lu Jiangang said he had a troubled
cooperation with the catcher and felt regretted for not controlling
Japanese battings in the second when he was earned the four
runs.
"We had two chances to get more runs in the game when Japan got
a full-loaded bases," Chinese baseman Jia Yubing told Xinhua, "but
we also played good pitchings for most of the time."
In the bronze medal game played earlier on Thursday, France beat
Czech Republic at 8-4.
(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2007)