Japanese national baseball team won the gold medal of "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 international baseball tournament in the final against China Thursday evening.

 

The Japanese team, consisting of collegiate players and domestic league professionals, beat the host team 5-2 in the final of the tournament which serves as a test event for the Beijing Olympics next year.

 

China made a quick lead by two runs in the top first inning in which Wang Chao made a RBI triple to let Chinese first batter Hou Fenglian run.

 

Jia Yubing, who hit two homers for China in the previous four games, singled later to allow Wang to make the second run with zero out.

 

Japanese tied the game with Tanaka Daijiro's RBI single which allowed two runs at the bottom second, followed by another two-run contributed by his teammates to lead the game in the same inning.

 

Yoshida Kei added the another run in the bottom sixth before the final game ended in the top ninth in which Chinese batted a hitless half.

 

"I am very proud of my players who win the silver in a close game to learn international experience," Chinese team manager James Lefebvre told a press conference.

 

"They could not make four runs in the second if we catch the balls," said the manager, revealing that there had been too many mistakes in the game.

 

Chinese starting pitcher Lu Jiangang said he had a troubled cooperation with the catcher and felt regretted for not controlling Japanese battings in the second when he was earned the four runs.

 

"We had two chances to get more runs in the game when Japan got a full-loaded bases," Chinese baseman Jia Yubing told Xinhua, "but we also played good pitchings for most of the time."

 

In the bronze medal game played earlier on Thursday, France beat Czech Republic at 8-4.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2007)