Japan got a homerun from Atsunori Inaba and held on to beat Canada 1-0 Monday morning at Wukesong Baseball Field 2 on day six of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Baseball Tournament.

Both team Canada (1-4) and Japan (3-2) starting pitchers provided solid pitching through the first five innings while their defense was unyielding as well, in what looked to be yet another pitcher's dual during the Olympic Games. But Japan broke through in the fifth inning on starting Canadian pitcher, Chris Begg, as Inaba trotted around the bases after hitting a homerun to right-center getting Japan on the board 1-0; a deficit that Canada would not overcome.

Team Canada had many chances at threatening to tie the game but Japan's pitching staff and defense were just too strong to penetrate.

Starting pitcher, Yoshihisa Naruse (1-0) went seven innings giving up only two hits with ten strikeouts while closer Kyuji Fujikawa and Koji Uehara came in and shut down team Canada in his two innings of relief work, not allowing a single hit. Uehara picked up the save (1).

Chris Begg (1-1) picked up the loss for team Canada. Begg pitched five full innings, allowing one run on four hits and tallied five strikeouts.

Team Canada will look to bounce back into the wins column when they face the Netherlands (1-3) on Tuesday at 10:30 on Wukesong Baseball Field 2.

Japan will take on host-country China (1-3) at 18:30, also on Wukesong Baseball Field 2.

For more information please visit www.ibaf.org.

Notes:

David Molina, President of the Guatemalan Baseball Federation, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before this morning’s game.

Final attendance for this morning’s game was 2,752.

Source: IBAF