Taipei, Dec. 3 (CNA) Japan beat Taiwan 10-2 Monday in the final game of the 24th Asian Baseball Championship at Taichung's Intercontinental Stadium to win the tournament and clinch an automatic seed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Undefeated Japan proved itself Asia's dominant baseball power once again by beating Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines in the round robin tournament, which crowned the Asian champion and determined Asia's lone automatic seed in the eight-team baseball category in Beijing.
According to the tournament's tiebreaking rule, Taiwan not only had to beat Japan but also needed to give up no more than one run to emerge as the tournament winner in a three-way tie. Japan edged South Korea 4-3 and South Korea beat Taiwan 5-2 previously. The tiebreaking rule would kick in if three teams tied at 1-1 in head-to-head match ups.
However, the home team's hope of clinching an Olympic seed was put on hold in the top of the seventh inning, when Japan exploded for six runs to break the game open, 7-2. Arai Takahiro had a two-run homer off Taiwanese closer Tsao Chin-hui as Japan added three more runs in the ninth inning.
Taiwan can still win a berth in Beijing as it and South Korea, Asia's runner-up and the third-place team, will participate in the eight-team Olympic Qualifying tournament next March in Taichung, Taiwan to fight for the last three spots in the 2008 Olympics.
Japanese starter Darvish Yu, a 21-year-old Iranian-Japanese who was named Pacific League MVP in Nippon Professional Baseball last season, dominated Taiwanese hitters in seven strong innings, giving up only three hits and two runs.
Taiwan's starting pitcher Yang Chien-fu gave up seven hits, half of Japan's 14 in the game, in six innings.
Japan quickly jumped on Taiwan with three hits in the first inning as Takahiro's base hit sent third base runner Nishiota Tsuyoshi home for an 1-0 lead. Chen Chin-feng's two-run home run helped Taiwan briefly take the lead 2-1 in the sixth inning.
South Korea defeated the Philippines 13-1 in seven innings earlier in the day. South Korea blasted 16 hits in the game in which the Philippines scored its first and only run in the three-day tournament.