USA Baseball moving toward FISU championships

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The USA baseball team overcame an early deficit and scored multiple runs during three different innings earlier today on its way to a 9-3 victory over Japan in a pool-play game at the FISU World Championships at Mestsky Stadium in Brno, Czech Republic.

The win improved the U.S. record to 5-0 in FISU pool play and 21-0 on its ongoing summer tour. The victory made the U.S. the top seed going into this weekend’s tournament portion of the FISU World Championships.

Japan’s Keijiro Matsumoto doubled in a run in the bottom of the first inning, but the U.S. rallied for a four-run second. Japan pulled to within one run at 4-3, scoring single runs in the second and third innings. But the U.S. responded with three runs on three hits, a walk and a hit batsman in the top of the fifth, and added a pair of runs in the seventh.

U.S. starter Chris Hernandez earned the victory, allowing three runs (two of them earned) on five hits and two walks with nine strikeouts over 6.1 innings. Kyle Gibson (Greenfield, Ind.) had three strikeouts and one hit over 1.2 innings. Kendal Volz (Bulverde, Texas) added a perfect ninth inning with one strikeout in a non-save situation.

Team USA’s final FISU pool play game comes on Thursday (1:30 a.m. PST) against Chinese-Taipei, again at Mestsky Stadium. The U.S. has won the eight previous match-ups.

-- Greg Johnson