In the final Saturday night, South Korea faced the United States.
Advertisement
The tournament is organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation with games taking place at both the Tokyo Dome and the Sapporo Dome along with other smaller venues throughout Japan.
The 55,000 seat Tokyo Dome filled to capacity.
Opening pitcher Rhee Dae-eun was replaced after 3-1/3 innings having given up three hits, but his replacement, Cha Woo-chan, allowed a third run in the inning, Hirata scoring on short stop Hayato Sakamoto’s sacrifice fly.
The first pitch today is scheduled for 7pm. Nobody reached second with Otani on the mound, as he continued to produce fastballs above 160 kph into the seventh inning.
At first, the Korean hitters didn’t fare much better against reliever Takahiro Norimoto, who took the mound in the eighth.
South Korea, who captured gold at the 2008 Beijing Games, will face the winners of Friday’s match-up between the United States and Mexico in the championship game on Sunday. They trailed 3-0 heading into the ninth inning before rallying for four runs to earn the 4-3 win.
Advertisement
Tetsuto Yamada hit two of Samurai Japan’s five home runs as the host nation routed Mexico 11-1 in the third-place playoff on Saturday afternoon at Tokyo Dome in a game ended in the seventh inning by the mercy rule.
