Team USA defeated Japan 9-3 on Wednesday to win their fifth game at the World University Baseball Championship in the Czech Republic and to clinch first place after the preliminary round. It was their 21st straight victory this summer. Blake Smith and Josh Fellhauer each drove in two. Chris Hernandez struck out nine in 6 1/3 innings to receive the win. Hisashi Takeuchi gave up three hits, four runs and three walks in two innings for the loss.
In the afternoon Taiwan beat Lithuania 7-1 behind two RBI each by Chih-Pei Huang and Chun-Chien Wang. Chin-Lung Huang started and struck out five in 3 1/3 innings. Edgaras Matusevicius got starting duties for Lithuania. He gave up five hits, three runs and five base on balls in 3 2/3 innings.
In the evening session the Czech team lost 0-4 to Canada. Mark Hardy struck out 15 in eight three-hit innings to lead the maple leafs. Marshall MacDonald had two RBI. Alex White scored twice. Martin Schneider took the loss after allowing six hits, three runs and a walk in six innings.
Results:
USA 040 030 200 9 7 3 JPN 111 000 000 3 6 1
Box score
Recap on usabaseball.com
LIT 000 010 000 1 7 3 TAI 003 010 120 7 11 0
CZE 000 000 000 0 3 0 CAN 002 001 100 4 9 1
Standings:
USA 5-0
Japan 4-1
Taiwan 3-2
Korea 3-2
Canada 2-3
Czech Republic 1-4
Lithuania 0-6