U-23 Baseball World Cup – Games 16-18: Japan, Korea still unbeaten; Czech gets first win
No. 1 Japan and No. 3 Korea won Sunday night to join No. 13 Australia and No. 15 Panama as the only unbeaten countries through three days of competition at the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup® 2016.
MONTERREY, Mexico – No. 1 Japan and No. 3 Korea won Sunday night to join No. 13 Australia and No. 15 Panama as the only unbeaten countries through three days of competition at the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup® 2016.
Japan beat No. 27 Argentina, while Korea topped No. 8 Mexico. No. 14 Czech Republic got by No. 36 South Africa for their first win of the tournament.
Czech Republic 12, South Africa 4
Adam Hajtmar knocked in four runs with a 2-for-4 performance as the Czech Republic (1-2) picked up their first win of the U-23 world championship, defeating South Africa, 12-4.
Jakub Ondrácek went 3-for-6 and drove in two runs for a Czech Republic squad that built a 7-0 lead after just 4.5 innings.
Czech Republic starter was tagged for just one earned run over six innings of work that included five strikeouts as he picked up the win. Reliever Svatoslav Kraut was effective over three innings of work limiting South Africa to one runs on three hits and three walks to earn the save.
South Africa’s Robert John Patrick Lewis-Walker took the loss.
Argentina (1-2) opened the scoring with two runs in the first before Japan (3-0) responded with 10 unanswered runs en route to a 10-2 victory.
Yusuke Masago’s 2-run home run highlighted a 3-run third inning for Japan who received a 2-for-5 two RBI performance off the hot bat of Kengo Takeda.
Japan starting pitcher Daiki Aoyama worked six innings without allowing an earned run and struck out six batters to get the win. Argentina’s Franco Daniel Perez took the loss.
Jiseob Lim, Sanghyun Jeong and Jinsu Byeon combined to limit host Mexico (1-2) to just one run and three hits as Korea (3-0) picked up their third win of the tournament with a 6-1 victory.
Lim started and worked six innings to get the win, while Jeong tossed two shutout innings in relief before Byeon threw a scoreless ninth.
Hyeokjae Won drove in two runs for Korea, while going 2-for-4.
Mexico starting pitcher Samuel Zazueta Molina suffered the loss.
