Samurai Japan Advances to WBC Semifinals

The Yomiuri Shimbun

22:36 JST, March 16, 2023

Kazuma Okamoto helped Samurai Japan advance to the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic with a homerun in the third inning of a 9-3 victory over upstart Italy in quarterfinal action at Tokyo Dome on Thursday night.

Shohei Ohtani got the start on the mound for Japan and worked 4⅔ innings.

The semifinals are in Miami, and Japan joins Cuba as the first two teams to reach the final four.