Samurai Japan¡¯s young players grabbed their manager, Astunori Inaba, and threw him in the air once and then twice, before seemingly needing a few seconds to regroup before sending him up once more.
It was about the only thing that didn¡¯t go smoothly for Japan in the final round of the inaugural Asia Professional Baseball Championship (APBC). Then again, this tournament was about the future, and Inaba¡¯s band of under-24s have plenty of time to work on their victory toss technique.
Kazuto Taguchi threw seven scoreless innings, Shuta Tonosaki sparked a big night at the plate with a pair of RBIs and Inaba led Japan to a title in his managerial debut with a 7-0 thumping of South Korea in the APBC final in front of a crowd of 30,498 on Sunday night at Tokyo Dome.
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