U-18 Baseball World Cup: USA walks it off, Okugawa shines as super round opens
This is a full recap of the three games played in the first day of the super round: USA-Australia, Korea-Chinese Taipei and Japan Canada. You will find more details on the tournament page
The super round of the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup opened in Gijang, Korea, on Thursday, 5 September. This is a full recap of the three games played on Day 1. Links will lead you to the tournament page for full reports, boxscores, statistics and a selection of the best pictures.
The USA beat Australia, 2-1, with a walk-off base hit by catcher Drew Romo in the bottom of the ninth. Australia had just tied the game on an RBI-double that initially was ruled a home run. The call was reversed by the on-field video review.
Chinese Taipei outhit the hosts Korea and won 7-2. Second baseman Lee Hao Yu went 3 for 3 and shortstop Cheng Tsung Che went 2 for 4. Starting pitcher Chen Po Yu gave his National Team six strong innings and earned the win.
Yasunobu Okugawa was all the scouts expected. His fastball touched 152 KMs (94 miles) per hour and his sweeping breaking ball provoked a number of swings and misses. Canada found the way to take the lead against him in the top of the fourth on a home run by Owen Diodati. Japan came from behind, reversed the lead one inning later and went on to defeat Canada, 5-1.
