Japan has won the Honkbalweek Haarlem 2018. Team Nippon shut out Chinese Taipei 5-0 in the final of the 29th edition of the international baseball tournament at Pim Mulier Stadium. CT had reached the final by defeating the Netherlands 7-5 on Saturday. Cuba finished in fourth place after prevailing 9-5 over Italy. Germany ranked sixth.
Honkbalweek Haarlem announced on Sunday that the 30th edition will be held from June 26 till July 5, 2020. The 2018 tournament was attended by a total of 37,000 paying fans, which means an average of 3.700 per day or 1.760 per game. Full house was booked for games with Netherlands national team, but 14 out of 21 games were completely foreign and still gained an attendance of approximately 1000 paying fans or more.
Cuba 100 150 020 9 14 3 Italy 100 102 001 5 9 2
Cuba, which lost all five games during the preliminary phase of the Honkbalweek Haarlem 2018, climbed to fourth place in the double-elimination portion of the tournament after defeating Germany 7-1 on Friday and Italy 9-5 on Saturday. Five runs in the fifth decided the outcome. Cuba’s Ariel Sanchez and Italy’s Chris Colabello hit home runs in the game. Leonardo Zileri collected four hits for Italy. Royd Hernandez picked up the win, Gian Franco Rizzo got charged with the loss. Italy used eight pitchers in the game.
Managing director KNBSB, Bart Volkerijk, presented to the 2,500 crowd at Pim Mulier Stadium Mrs Giovanna Saleri, CEO of Johnson SRL at Brescia, who performed the game’s ceremonial first pitch to Italian catcher Alessandro Deotto. Johnson SRL is a sponsor for the Italian Baseball Softball Federation (FIBS) and a potential sponsor for the Super Six tournament, to be held in Hoofddorp in September.
Netherlands 000 120 200 5 9 1 Chinese Taipei 000 330 10X 7 9 2
Chinese Taipei defeated host Netherlands 7-5 on Saturday evening to reach the final on Sunday. A pair of three-run innings gave the Asian team a 6-3 advantage en route to the win. The Dutch team was able to cut the deficit to 5-6 in the top of the seventh but couldn’t complete the comeback successfully. Dudley Leonora went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored. Chien Lung Huang earned the win, Diegomar Markwell took the loss.
Chinese Taipei 000 000 000 0 4 1 Japan 000 104 00X 5 10 0
Japan won the 29th edition of the Honkbalweek with a 5-0 shutout over Chinese Taipei in an all-Asia final on Sunday afternoon. Four pitchers combined to hold CT to four hits and a walk in nine scoreless innings, striking out 13. Wataru Matsumoto earned his third win with four strikeouts in two perfect frames. Japan took the lead in the fourth and added four runs in the sixth to secure the victory. Shunya Iwaka capped the rally with a three-run home run. Yu Hsiang Lin got charged with the loss.
All information about the Honkbalweek Haarlem can be found at www.honkbalweek.nl.
Pim van Nes contributed to the article.