---------- Softball: Sakai retired at end of 2009 season
TOKYO - Softball pitcher Hiroko Sakai, who competed on Japan's gold-winning team at the Beijing Olympics and for the bronze medal four years earlier in Athens, retired at the end of the 2009 season, softball sources said Wednesday.
The 31-year-old Sakai will remain as a coach with corporate team Taiyo Yuden.
---------- Tennis: Date Krumm leads Japan to Fed Cup victory
KUALA LUMPUR - Veteran Kimiko Date Krumm helped Japan to secure a 3-0 victory over Indonesia on Wednesday in the Fed Cup's Asia/Oceania Group 1 round robin.
Date Krumm, appearing for the first time in 14 years, breezed past Ayu-Fani Damayanti 6-2, 6-0 to win her first singles tie since beating Germany's Steffi Graf at the 1996 tournament.
---------- Baseball: Lotte acquires former Hanshin infielder Imaoka
TOKYO - Lotte Marines manager Norifumi Nishimura said Wednesday the club will acquire former Hanshin Tigers infielder Makoto Imaoka after a successful tryout at Lotte's spring training in Okinawa camp.
''He is a player who has produced results,'' Nishimura told a news conference. ''I thought he would pass the test if he played as he normally does. There were no problems.''
---------- Soccer: No room for Ishikawa, Koroki in Japan's E. Asian c'ship squad
TOKYO - FC Tokyo midfielder Naohiro Ishikawa and Kashima Antlers striker Shinzo Koroki both failed to make the cut as Japan coach Takeshi Okada named his squad for the upcoming East Asian championship in Tokyo.
Takashi Inui (Cerezo Osaka) and Daisuke Muramatsu (Shonan Bellmare) were also deemed surplus to requirements but Keiji Tamada and Atsuto Uchida were included in the trimmed down 23-man squad.
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