Japan won the 2019 World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 title from the Tokyo Dome on Sunday. In the championship game, Japan defeated South Korea 5-3 in a game that took the full three hours to determine a champion.
Even though South Korea lost the gold medal game, the WBSC Premier 12 event was actually a win for the South Koreans. They qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo by being the highest placed team in Asia outside of Japan, which already qualified by being the Olympic host.
In the final, South Korea took an early 3-0 lead as Ha Seeing Kim hit a two run home run while batting second in the order in the top of the first inning. Jung-Hoo Lee also scored for South Korea on the Ha Seong Kim home run as he led off the inning with a walk. Then with two out, Hyunsoo Kim hit another home run for South Korea.
However, the Korean lead was shortlived. In the bottom of the first inning, Seiya Suzuki had a key two out hit himself as he recorded a double to left field, which scored Hayato Sakamoto. The extra base hit put Japan on the scoreboard, but they were still down 2-1.
Then in the bottom of the second inning, Japan did all their damage with two out. Tsubasa Aizawa walked, Ryosuke Kikuchi singled and Tetsuto Yamada hit a three run home run to put Japan up 4-3.
In the seventh inning, Japan scored a key insurance run. Hideto Asamura hit an RBI single which scored Sakamoto again.
A major reason for the Japanese win was their effective bullpen. After Shun Yamaguchi struggled by giving up three earned runs in the first inning, he was pulled. Rei Takahashi, Kazuto Taguchi, Kota Nakagawa, Hiroshi Kaina, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Yasuaki Yamasaki then combined for eight scoreless innings and only gave up three hits in the process.
It was also a successful WBSC Premier12 tournament for Mexico. They also qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games by being the top team from the Americas. In an exciting bronze medal game, Mexico beat the United States 3-2 in 10 innings.
