HOKKAIDO, Japan – USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team (0-1) dropped the opening game of the 45th USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Championship Series on Tuesday, July 8, at Es Con Field in Hokkaido, Japan. Japan (1-0) took advantage of defensive miscues and used timely hitting to earn a 6-1 victory.
Team USA’s Ethan Norby (ECU) started on the mound and tossed two scoreless innings to keep the opposition off the board, but then Japan broke the ice in the third inning by plating three runs on two hits and an error. Ruan Otsuka led off the frame with a double to right field and moved to third on a deep fly ball to left field. He crossed home plate on an error for the first run, and then with runners in scoring position, a wild pitch followed by an RBI single from Kai Watabe scored the final two runs of the inning.
In the fifth inning, Koichiro Oda hit a leadoff home run to center field to make the score 4-0 in favor of Japan. Then, with Masahiro Tateishi on second after hitting a double to right field on the next at-bat, he came home on Ren Hirakawa’s RBI single to right field to extend the lead to five.
The stars and stripes’ lone run of the game came in the sixth inning. Lucas Moore (Louisville) led off with a double to left field, then advanced the next two bases on groundouts courtesy of Roch Cholowsky (UCLA) and AJ Gracia (Virginia) to put his team on the board.
Japan quickly answered in the bottom frame, though. With runners at first and second, Taiga Kojima delivered a line drive single to right field to extend his team’s lead back to five and score what proved to be the final run of the game.
Ricky Ojeda (UC Irvine) and Liam Peterson (Florida) combined to keep Japan at bay across the seventh and eighth innings, but Team USA’s offense was unable to rally back in the final outs of the contest.
Along with Moore, Eric Becker (Virginia), Gracia, and Mulivai Levu (UCLA) each tallied hits in the contest. Six different pitchers made an appearance on the bump in the game, and Ryan Marohn (NC State) and Ojeda each fanned a team-high two batters.
The 45th USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Championship Series will continue Wednesday, July 9, at Es Con Field in Hokkiado, Japan. First pitch is set for 5:00 a.m. ET/6:00 p.m. local, and live stats and streaming can be found on GameChanger.
For the most up-to-date information on the Collegiate National Team, visit USABaseball.com and follow @USABaseballCNT and @USABaseball on Twitter/X, and @USABaseball on Instagram.
