Major League Baseball

WBC: Japan beats Israel 8-3 to get to championship round

Published Mar. 15, 2017 4:57 p.m. ET

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TOKYO (AP) - Yoshitomo Tsutsugo sparked a five-run sixth inning with a solo home run to lead Japan over Israel 8-3 Wednesday and into the championship round of the World Baseball Classic.

With a perfect 6-0 record through the first two rounds, two-time champion Japan advances from Pool E along with the Netherlands, which beat Cuba 14-1 at Tokyo Dome. Israel and Cuba were eliminated.

Tsutsugo connected off Israel reliever Dylan Axelrod with blast to deep center field. Nobuhiro Matsuda doubled in a run to make it 2-0 and Seiji Kobayashi, Nori Aoki and Ryosuke Kikuchi all added RBI hits to widen the lead.

"Our pitchers were doing a great job so I wanted to do something to contribute in that situation," Tsutsugo said.

Seiichi Uchikawa hit a double down the third base line to drive in two more runs in the eighth and Matsuda singled in the final run to complete the rout.

Israel won its first four games of the tournament but could not match more experienced baseball powers like Japan and the Netherlands in the second round.

The Netherlands beat Israel 12-2 in eight innings on Monday.

Ike Davis broke the shutout bid with a single in the top of the ninth that scored Sam Fuld from second, and Ryan Lavarnway doubled in two more runs before Kazuhisa Makita retired the side in the ninth.

Israel was made up almost entirely of Jewish-American players with major and minor league experience.

"We're disappointed because we lost and won't be moving on," Israel manager Jerry Weinstein said. "But we lost to two excellent teams. Japan didn't give anything away. They got timely hitting and really good pitching."

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