On the Scene - Japan Captures World Champs

(ATR) The Japanese juggernaut continues in women’s baseball.

Japan defeated Chinese Taipei 6-0 Friday night at the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup to win its sixth straight world championship.

After the game, the Japanese team stood in a line at home plate and bowed to the crowd, but it is the baseball world that bows down to the Asian nation.

The list of accomplishments keeps growing. Japan has won 30 games in a row dating back to the opening round at the 2012 World Cup and has shut out its opponents in the gold-medal game in four straight tournaments.

Japan outscored its opponents 63-4 in nine games at the USSSA Space Coast Complex in Viera, Florida.

Ayami Sato, the 28-year-old pitcher playing in her sixth World Cup, won her third straight MVP award to continue the superlatives. On two days rest, the right-hander pitched five innings Friday and finishes with an ERA of 0.37.

"Physically, Japanese are very small and tiny and skinny," Sato said through an interpreter. "Physically, we’re not so advantaged compared to other teams. But individual players know what they have to do, what they’re responsible for. So the individual will train by themselves, and then when they get to the team, it’s the best teamwork, and that’s why Japan is so strong."

Sato is just over 5-foot-5 (166 cm) and weighs 147 pounds (67 kg). No Japanese player on the World Cup roster is over 5-6 (170 cm) or weighs more than 150 pounds (68 kg).

Japan also excels through preparation. Kevin Reynolds, manager of the USSSA Space Coast complex, tells Around the Rings that Japan was the only team to scout the new facility. He said manager Megumi Kitta and two players arrived in February.

"They wanted to feel the (artificial) turf," he said. "They were sliding, taking ground balls and videotaping."

Canada manager Andre Lachance tells ATR that Japan has "structure that nobody else has" in its development program.

"They have women’s baseball in high school, college, universities, so they have more time to train and to develop fundamentals and skills," he said. "In my country, we can’t compete against that right now. I don’t think the U.S. can either. But we’ve got to control what we can control."

About 20,000 girls and women play baseball in Japan. It is played in 30 high schools and eight universities, with baseball scholarships and dorms for players. Sato is among the athletes who makes her living playing professional baseball in Japan in a women’s league.

With the number of children in Japan decreasing, schools have found that offering baseball for girls is an enticement for students.

Canada and Chinese Taipei gave Japan its closest games, both 2-1. Sato pitched in the game against Canada, but was not on the mound in the first game against Chinese Taipei on Wednesday because she had pitched the 3-0 shutout of Team USA the night before.

"She’s been lights-out," Lachance said of Sato.

"I wish I could play them again,"he added, "because I think we had the team to beat them this year. It’s just sometimes the timing is not right and Taipei had a great tournament. They’ve been improving year after year, since I started to see them the first year. They deserve to be in the gold-medal game. They play really well."

This was the highest finish at the World Cup for Chinese Taipei, which won the bronze in 2016.

Japan had eight hits and Chinese Taipei had six, all singles. Japan scored two runs in the first inning, one in the second and put the game away with three runs in the fourth.

Sato said that "batting is so good" compared to the previous World Cup.

She said that she doesn’t rely on power and strike-outs in her pitching, but rather on letting "the batter hit and then make outs and believing in her outfielders and infielders".

Sato issued no walks on Friday.

A Japanese official said that Sato wasn’t the best pitcher in high school. "She had the yips. Balls went everywhere," the official said. "She trained with a good pitching coach in college."

Sato added that she put pressure on herself in high school to pitch well, but in college learned how to enjoy pitching.

She cried after the victory, missing her father who could not come to the United States for the tournament. He had been hospitalized and is now in rehabilitation. On Friday morning, he sent his daughter a note that said, "Do your best".

Sato, who played against boys when she was little, wants to play in a women’s all-star game against men to bring awareness to her sport Although she wouldn’t turn down a tryout with a men’s league, she said she "wants to try to develop women’s baseball internationally, rather than beating the boys."

And in order to have success, she said she would "study English rather than baseball."

Written by Karen Rosen in Viera, Florida.

Coverage of the WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup is made possible in part by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.

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