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Olympics: Inaba hit helps lift Japan over Taiwan in baseball prelims
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BEIJING, Aug. 14 (00:59) Kyodo
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Atsunori Inaba hit a tiebreaking single in the sixth inning
Thursday, helping Japan beat Taiwan 6-1 for its first victory in the
baseball preliminaries at the Beijing Olympic Games.
Japan's offense finally came alive in a four-run ninth --
featuring a bases-loaded, two-run single by Hiroyuki Nakajima -- to
put the game out of reach. Both Japan and Taiwan have one win and one
loss so far in the preliminary round.
Taiwan got on the scoreboard first when Peng Cheng-min doubled
leading off the fourth and Chiang Chih-hsien hit an RBI single to
make it 1-0, but a solo homer by Yomiuri Giants slugger Shinnosuke
Abe tied it up in the fifth.
Norichika Aoki singled to lead off the sixth and moved to second
on a Masahiko Morino sacrifice bunt, setting up Nippon Ham Fighters
outfielder Inaba's single one out later to give Japan the lead at
Wukesong Baseball Field.
Starter Hideaki Wakui of the Seibu Lions struck out six and
allowed one run on three hits in six innings to take the win, and
Hitoki Iwase, Kyuji Fujikawa and Koji Uehara combined to hold off
Taiwan's offense in the last three innings.
''I had a chance when I got up to bat and I wanted to make the
best of it,'' Inaba said. ''We're not in bad shape. Hopefully this
win will help motivate us to keep winning.''
Japan got off to a shaky start with a 4-2 defeat to defending
champion Cuba the previous day, but ''Hoshino Japan'' had plenty to
smile about on Thursday.
''I felt we had a chance to win when Shinnosuke hit that homer
right after they scored against us,'' said Japan team manager Senichi
Hoshino.
''It took a while after that but Inaba had a great clutch hit.
We have to take extra precautions in every way in our next game,'' he
said.
As at the Athens Olympics four years ago when it won the bronze
medal, Japan has put together an all-pro 24-man squad for Beijing in
the hope of going one better than its silver medal in the 1996
Atlanta Games.
Japan won a bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when baseball
became an official medal event, took silver four years later behind
Cuba and missed a medal in Sydney in 2000. Baseball will be dropped
from the 2012 London Olympics.
In other preliminary-round action, the United States blanked the
Netherlands 7-0 for its first win, while three-time champion Cuba
prevailed 7-6 over Canada for its second victory in a row. The game
between South Korea and China was postponed due to rain. |
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