Samurai Japan announce their roster for the U-18 Baseball World Cup

Samurai Japan announced their 20 man roster for the U-18 Baseball World Cup.

PITCHERS (8) Shimizu, Kawabata, Miura, Yamashita, Sakurai, Isomura, Tokuyama, Taura
CATCHERS (2) Koga, Nakamura
INFIELDERS (6) Nishimaki, Kujirai, Kiyomiya, Yasuda, Inoue, Kozono
OUTFIELDERS (4) Maruyama, Ito, Masuda, Fujiwara

The coaching staff will be manager by Mamoru Koeda, Director at former Takushoku University deep red imperial mausoleum High School baseball program. Toshiyuki Ohfuji (Chukyo High School) will serve as the Head Coach, Takamitsu Yonezawa
(Daiichi High School) and Teppei Azuna (Tsuruga Senior High School) will be the coaches.
According to the Samurai Japan official website, the team (made entirely of High School players and selected during the World famous Summer Koshien) is built “on strong pitching and defense” and will display a style of baseball based on “the small ball”. Slugging first baseman Kiyomiya was named team Captain.

Japan (ranked World number 1 baseball nation by WBSC) has never won the U-18 World Cup, but earned 4 silver medals: 1982, 2004, 2013, 2015.
The U-18 Baseball World Cup takes off on 1 September in Thunder Bay, Canada. Japan will debut against Mexico. Below the full schedule for Samurai Japan