Baseball: Japan beats Taiwan for sole lead in Premier12 group

Hiroto Saiki threw 5-2/3 scoreless innings as defending champion Japan beat Taiwan 3-1 to take sole possession of the Group B lead at the Premier12 baseball tournament Saturday.Japan improved its record to 3-0 and dropped Taiwan to 2-1 in six-team, round-robin play. The top two Group B finishers will meet the top two from Mexico's Group A -- Venezuela and the United States -- in the Super Round from Thursday at Tokyo Dome.Saiki allowed just three hits, all singles, while striking out five and walking two at Taipei Dome."The cheering at this stadium was way more than I expected," the Hanshin…READ FULL ARTICLE