Team USA won the title at the World University Championship in the Czech Republic on Sunday with a thrilling 1-0 extra inning shutout against Japan. The pitching staff with Stephen Strasburg, Mike Minor and Kendal Volz at the top finished with an ERA of 0.88 to lead the squad to a perfect 24-0 record on their 2008 tour through exhibitions, the Haarlem Baseball Week and the WUBC.
Their sixth shutout this summer led to the win on Sunday. However they needed 12th innings to beat a strong Japanese team. Pinch hitter Matt Morris broke a scoreless tie with a RBI single, driving in Micah Gibbs from second in the top of the third extra inning. Volz finished the game with his eighth save in as many opportunities. Minor started and struck out nine in 9 2/3 four-hit innings. Kyle Gibson picked up the win. Shinji Iwata started for the Asian powerhouse, allowing nine hits and two walks in 9 1/3 scoreless innings. Yosuke Inoue took the loss. They had the tying run on third in the bottom of the twelfth, but failed to bring him in.
In the afternoon Taiwan shut out Korea 7-0 to finish in third at the WUBC. The Czech Republic had lost the game for fifth place earlier the day 1-3 against Canada.
Results:
CZE 000 000 001 1 2 4 CAN 030 000 00X 3 6 0
KOR 000 000 000 0 6 2 TAI 020 200 030 7 12 1
USA 000 000 000 001 1 12 1 JPN 000 000 000 000 0 5 0
Box score
Recap on usabaseball.com
Final Standings WUBC:
- USA
- Japan
- Taiwan
- Korea
- Canada
- Czech Republic
- Lithuania