■13th BFA U-18 Asian Championship Opening Round Hong Kong 0-19 Japan (5th inning called game) (2nd, Taipei Municipal Tianmu Baseball Stadium)

Japan won a big victory over Hong Kong in a 5-inning shutout. In the top of the first inning, No. 5 Tokumaru Kaisei (Osaka Toin High School) and No. 7 Hanada Yuzuki (Chinen Wakayama High School) hit timely hits to score 7 runs. In the bottom of the second inning, No. 4 Ishizuka Hiroaki (Hanasaki Tokuei High School) hit a timely hit to score 4 runs, making the score 11-0. They continued to score in the third and fourth innings, giving them a huge lead of 19 runs. On the pitching side, starter Takao Hibiki (Koryo High School) pitched well, striking out 4 batters and allowing no runs in the second inning, and No. 2 Fujita Ryusei (Tokai University Sagami High School) and No. 3 Tazaki Hayashi (Konan High School) also kept the game scoreless.

The 13th BFA U18 Asian Championship will begin in Taiwan on this day. Japan will play against Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines in the opening round (Group B). Japan has won five times in the past 12 tournaments, tying with South Korea for the most wins. The 18 players who excited Koshien this summer will aim for the top of Asia for the sixth time in two tournaments.

Takao, who was assigned to start on the mound in the first game, walked the first batter Ryu Hanyan on a straight pitch, but struck out the second batter Lee Rongsheng and the third batter Wu Tingyi. Furthermore, catcher Shunnosuke Kumagai (Kanto Daiichi High School) prevented the runner from stealing first base, resulting in a double play.

In the bottom of the inning, Hong Kong’s starting pitcher Hou Pai-tung was hit by leadoff hitter Sakai Ryoyo (Osaka Toin High School) who reached base with a right-handed hit. He immediately stole second base, followed by No. 2 Hamamoto Harudai (Koryo High School) who hit a shortstop, and No. 3 Takayama Yujiro (Kendai Takasaki High School) who was walked, giving the team a chance with the bases loaded and no outs. No. 4 Ishizuka hit a grounder to third base, but the team took the lead with one run. No. 5 Tokumaru hit a slider on the third pitch for an RBI single to center field, adding a second run. The batting line continued its momentum, with No. 7 Hanada hitting a RBI single to left field with the bases loaded and one out, and No. 8 Uno Manjiro (Waseda Jitsugyo High School) hitting a RBI triple to right-center field to make it 6-0. Hong Kong’s second pitcher, Ho Jin-shi, took the mound, but No. 9 Kumagai hit a timely double over the left fielder’s head to add to their lead, scoring seven runs in the inning.

In the second inning, Takao struck out two batters and retired the other three batters, and in the bottom of the second inning, with runners on first and second and no outs, No. 4 Ishizuka hit a triple to left field, and No. 5 Tokumaru hit a single to right field, scoring the 10th run. The next hit by No. 8 Uno was dropped by the center fielder, scoring the 11th run.

In the top of the third inning, the second pitcher Fujita took to the mound. He struck out three batters in a row with an angled pitch. In the bottom of the third inning, against Hong Kong’s third pitcher Jiang Li-Chen, the third batter Takayama walked, and the fourth batter Ishizuka hit a single to center field, creating an opportunity, and the fifth batter Tokumaru hit a two-run timely hit to right field, making the score 13-0. The sixth batter Sakurai Tsubiki (Tsuruoka Higashi High School) also hit a timely hit to center field, making the score 14-0.

In the top of the fourth inning, the third pitcher, Tazaki, walked the first batter, Liu Hanyan, but held the next batter to keep the score at zero. In the bottom of the fourth inning, with no outs and a runner on first base, the ninth batter, Kumagai, hit a timely single to left field to score the 15th run. The third batter, Takayama, and the fourth batter, Ishizuka, also hit consecutive timely hits to score 19 runs.

With a 19-point lead, Tazaki kept the score at zero in the top of the 5th inning and the game ended with a 5-inning shutout. Japan won their first game and got off to a good start. Their next game will be against Sri Lanka tomorrow, the 3rd.