The final of the Asian Professional Baseball Championship, an international baseball tournament, was held on the night of the 19th, and Japan defeated Korea Republic 10-4 in the 3th inning thanks to a bye hit by the Giants' Makoto Kadowaki to win the tournament for the second consecutive time.
The Asian Professional Baseball Championship was held at the Tokyo Dome, and four teams (Japan, Taiwan, Korea Republic and Australia) competed with national teams composed mainly of young players, and Japan, who finished first in the preliminary round with three consecutive wins, faced Korea Republic in the final on the night of 4 September.
Japan took the lead for the first time in the tournament with two runs in the third inning, but in the fifth inning, No. 3 DeNA and Hidego Maki hit a solo home run to close the gap to one run, and in the sixth inning, Hanshin's Teruaki Sato's sacrifice fly tied the game.
After the fifth inning, Japan did not allow a run to the Korean batting line with a three-pitcher relay, but the batting line could not win the game, and the game went into extra innings.
From the 1th inning, a tiebreaker was adopted that started with no outs at first base and second base, and Japan's fifth Yakult pitcher, Koshiro Yoshimura, held the opponent's offense to one run.
With that offense, No. 19 Hiroshima tied the game on a sacrifice fly by Shogo Sakakura, and with two outs, No. 2 Giants Kadowaki hit a timely hit to left field to give Japan a 3-2 walk-bye win.
Japan won the championship with four consecutive wins without a loss, which was the first match of coach Hirokazu Ibata, who was appointed last month.
Japan won the tournament for the second time in a row, following the first tournament in 5.
Coach Ibata: "No one gave up"
Coach IBATA Hirokazu of the Japan National Team said with a smile, "I am very happy to be able to win in front of so many fans, I am relieved and grateful to the players for their hard work."
Commenting on the match that led to Korea Republic taking the lead, he said, "No one gave up, we just wanted to win. From 0-2 down to Maki's home run, the atmosphere on the bench changed."
He also praised the Giants' Makoto Kadowaki, who hit a walk-off hit in extra innings, saying, "At the end, he hit it back to center field like he did, and I'm glad that he batted well."
Looking to the future, he expressed his hopes for the winning squad of this tournament, saying, "I think this tournament will help us grow by playing with young players and experiencing the difficulties of international competitions, and I hope that as many people as possible will join the national team next year because of the Premier12."