Japan compounded the Philippines’ woes after scoring an 8-3 victory yesterday in the Round of the XVII WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup at Rosedale Park in Auckland.
Meeting in a rematch of their 11th Men’s Softball Asia Cup final in Kochi, Japan last September, the Japanese re-asserted their dominance over the Blu Boys, who have yet to win in the World Cup this year.
The Philippines scored first at the top of the first inning after Mark Janzen Gaspi got to the home plate thanks to Julius Diaz’s run-batted-in single.
The Japanese then retaliated by getting four runs from Taiyo Kataoka, Tei Hamamoto, Hikaru Matsuda and Yusuke Morita at the bottom of the first inning.
Kazuya Toriyama then scored a home run for Japan at the bottom of the fifth inning to extend the lead to 5-1.
Gaspi and Micheal Pagkaliwagan added two more runs for the Philippines at the top of the sixth inning to pump some life back into the game, 5-3.
But runs from Toriyama, Naoaki Kawada and Seii Kuroiwa, at the bottom of the sixth inning iced the game for Japan.
The Philippines sits at the bottom of the Placement Round with Denmark after three losses each.
The Blu Boys and the Danish duke it out for their first win in the World Cup today at 1 p.m. (Manila time).
