Lefty Takahisa Hayakawa struck out seven over five perfect innings as Japan completed the round-robin phase of the Asia Professional Baseball Championship with a 10-0 win over Australia on Saturday.Japan, without most of its top-tier domestic talent for the tournament at Tokyo Dome, ended its penultimate game in eight innings via the mercy rule and will play Sunday's final against South Korea, which beat Taiwan 6-1.Hayakawa left with a 5-0 lead in a game in which every Samurai Japan batter reached base."That was some excellent pitching," said new Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata said. "We've pi…READ FULL ARTICLE
