They didn’t get off to a great start, but they sure made up for it with a resounding finish.
Japan came from behind to dominate the Roswell Invaders at the World Baseball Challenge at Prince George’s Citizen Field by an 11-3 score.
The Invaders jumped out to a 3-0 lead courtesy of Cody Bishop and Cody Hoffman who RBI singles and doubles to put the home team out front.
An 11-0 run by the Japanese began in the 5th inning courtesy of a Hasegawa Takuma triple scoring Sugano Tsuyoshi and Watanabe Kimo.
The onslaught would continue in the 7th thanks to a Takuma double scoring the team’s 3 of their 4 runs.
Japan would pad their advantage in the 8th and 9th scoring five more times.
Japanese Manager, Tsuyoshi Ando says his young team rallied when it counted. “We have a young team that tries it’s best until the end which has the efforts leading to the winning.”
Through two games, Watanabe Kimo is batting .625 while his teammate Hasegawa Takuma is hitting .556.
Japan Starting pitcher Kondo Hitsohi went 7 innings allowing 3 runs on 6 hits followed by 4 strikeouts.
Darrell Thompson took the loss on the mound for Roswell giving up 6 runs on 9 hits.
Japan improves to 2-0 and will play the Kamloops Sun Devils tonight at 8PM.
The Invaders are back in action this afternoon against Canadian Sidearm Nation at 4PM.