Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, March 10 (Reporter Wang Zijiang Yue Chenxing) The Chinese baseball team was hit by a home run by the Czech team at the last moment, losing the lead and missing the first victory in the 5th World Baseball Classic. The first thing that comes to American head coach Dean Traynor's mind is to feel sorry for the players.

　　"They fought desperately for this game and kept fighting. I am extremely proud of them and heartbroken for them. Maybe this is the hardest defeat I have ever experienced." He said after the game.

　　Traynor is 75 years old and looks thin, but the conversation is always full of enthusiasm.

At the press conference before the first match of the Chinese team in Group B against the host Japanese team, Treynor maintained a high morale and firmly believed that the Chinese baseball team did not come to "play soy sauce".

Sure enough, in the game on the evening of the 9th, the Chinese team played very tenaciously when they were behind. Liang Pei even hit the first home run of the game.

　　Among the four opponents in the group, the Chinese team is most likely to defeat the Czech team.

But the arrangement of the match schedule is very unfavorable to China. The fierce battle with the Japanese team lasted for more than 4 hours. The players returned to the hotel in the early morning of the 10th. The Sino-Czech battle will start at 12 noon on the same day. The Chinese team counterattacked after falling behind at the start, and finally took a 5:4 lead in the seventh game, and maintained the advantage until the ninth game.

　　"We got up early today, came to the game very early, and we only hit the first good ball in the fifth inning, and then our fighting spirit came back." Treynor said, "In fact, we may have easily Just lost the whole game...although waking up early is no excuse."

　　In the ninth inning, when the Chinese team was in the lead, Treynor changed the pitcher.

Unfortunately, the opponent hit a home run, and the Chinese team was reversed.

　　Despite the two-game losing streak, Treynor is still optimistic about the remaining two games in the group stage. The Chinese team will face the Australian team on the 11th and the South Korean team on the 13th.

　　"I told the players it hurts to lose, but you can only be sad until 12 o'clock tomorrow when we have another game and we have to win it."

　　xinhuanet