Baseball: Japan defeats U.S. to even best-of-5 college series at 2-2
Associated Press
TSURUOKA, Japan — Japan defeated the United States 8-3 Wednesday to even the college baseball championship series at 2-2 and force a deciding fifth game.
Shingo Kamegai hit a two-run opposite field home run in the fourth inning to give Japan a 5-1 lead. Team USA had 10 hits in the game but stranded 16 runners on base.
Japanese starter Kazuhito Futagami gave up one run and struck out four in three innings of work. Reliever Nao Higashihama got the win for Japan after pitching two scoreless innings.
Trevor Bauer started the game for the Americans and took the loss after giving up five runs on four hits over four innings.
Game five will be played Thursday in Tokyo.
