HOST Japan continued their dominance in softball extending to their youth team when they were crowned champions of the inaugural 1st U23 Men’s Softball Asia Cup in Shimanto City, Kochi, Japan on Thursday.
Japan’s men and women’s team are ranked World No 2.
Japan’s U23 team as champions have also qualified for the World Cup in Argentina in October together with Singapore who finished runners-up in the three team tournament here on a double round league format.
India the third team in the tournament lost all their games.
Japan on the opening day defeated India 7-1, although it was latter who took the lead with a run.
Japan in their second virtually confirmed their intention to dominate in the tournament with a 7-0 win over Singapore, while India categorically put themselves out of their running when they lost their second game of the day with a 13-0 loss to Singapore.
On the second day, Japan went on to exert their power with a 9-0 win over India.
But India tried not to return winless in the tournament in their last game when they gave a determined fight against Singapore only to lose 2-3.
Singapore on the other hand, ended the tournament with a second loss to Japan (0-6), but still managed to finish second with their two wins over India.
RESULTS:
Day 1
India v Japan 1-7
Singapore v India 13-0
Japan v Singapore 7-0
Day 2
Japan v India 9-0
India v Singapore 2-3
Singapore v Japan 0-6
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS:
- Japan
- Singapore
- India