Yoshiki Suzuki did just about everything right around the plate in Saturday's Little League World Series International title game.
He threw enough of his 91 pitches for strikes to earn a 5-2 victory over Mexicali, Baja Calif.
He also blocked it with perfect position, his left foot on the basepath, with his right foot behind him for support, to tag out Mexico's Jorge Jacobo on a critical infield dribbler in the fifth inning.
He also had one hit in three at-bats, and he scored an insurance run for himself in the fifth inning.
It all added up to put his Hamamatsu City, Japan, team into today's championship game against Huntington Beach, Calif., the seventh time in 11 years a Japanese team reached the final.
"I just want them all to try their best and they did a great job, more than I thought," Japan manager Atihiro Suzuki said through an interpreter. "We had little mistakes, but the game flowed well, so it turned out well."
Yoshiki Suzuki struck out Kenet Delgado on eight pitches to end the game and strand a runner on second, giving himself the complete game as well.
His only trouble came in the fourth inning when Alonso Garcia doubled and scored on an infield error and when Jacobo tripled home Carlos Arellano.
But Suzuki got himself out of the fifth-inning jam by tagging out Jacobo at home on a dribbler hit in front of the plate. It looked like a textbook fundamental tag, with Suzuki's left foot blocking the plate and his right foot in back for support.
Only Suzuki said that wasn't his plan.
"I didn't know the runner was running," Suzuki said through an interpreter. "I just happened to look, he was sliding and I went for the tag."
Suzuki also contributed offensively, singling and scoring when Asuya Otsuka singled to center in the fifth.
However, Mexico manager Francisco Picos said it was the two runs Japan scored in the fourth on top of two in the third that depressed his team, particularly after it stranded two runners in the first inning, blowing its best chance.
"They got a little desperate," Picos said through an interpreter. "Especially after they started scoring and we hadn't. I definitely think it affected them."
Japan scored in the third when Hiroyasu Sigiura doubled home Gaishi Iguchi and then scored on an infield error.
In the fifth, Kaito Suzuki singled home Otsuka and scored on Mitsuhiro Uchida's double.
Iguchi, Japan's normal shortstop, missed the first Mexico game with an injury but his team has won every game he's played here.
It all has Japan on the brink of a second straight LLWS title, as Edogawa Minami, of Tokyo, won last year. This is Hamamatsu City's first appearance. Atihiro Suzuki said neither he nor his kids had scouted the United States field, but that may not matter.
Picos thought Japan had Jacobo, his starting pitcher who took Saturday's loss, figured out ahead of time. But Suzuki said he thought Mexico would start Garcia, who instead relieved.
"After the game started we discussed Jacobo and we were able to adjust as a team together," Atihiro Suzuki said with a chuckle, appearing to take Picos' words as a compliment.
The Japanese manager comes off a little looser than some previous Japanese managers over the years. Sure, he stresses fundamentals over and over, and Suzuki's block of home is proof of the teaching, but it's not every year the Japanese manager says playing hard and having fun are more important than winning.
He's been seen laughing a bit on the field and usually during his postgame interviews, giving off the impression he's enjoying this once-in-a-lifetime ride every bit as most of his United States counterparts usually do.
He watched Edogawa Minami on TV with his players last year, and like them, he said he never believed he'd be here the following year.
This team is one win from something even more unbelievable.
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿