LSU's Zach Watson and Daniel Cabrera lead USA Baseball to Friday night win over Japan!!

USA wins 3-1.

All 3 USA runs were scored by LSU Tigers. Watson 2 and Cabrera 1.

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The victory gives the U.S. a 2-1 lead in the 42nd USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series. The red, white, and blue will go for its 24th series win on Saturday when the two squads square off at 6:05 p.m. ET at Riley Park in Charleston, S.C.

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Another strong effort on the mound and a pair of LSU Tigers at the plate led the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team to a 3-1 victory in game three of its series against Japan in front of a sell-out crowd of 4,211 at historic Grayson Stadium on Friday night.

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At the plate, Zach Watson (LSU) set the tone from the leadoff position, going 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored while his fellow Tiger teammate Daniel Cabrera (LSU) was 2-for-3 with a run and a walk out of the cleanup spot.

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Cabrera led off the third with a base hit to right-center before moving up to second when Andrew Vaughn (California) was hit by a pitch. Just a few pitches later, both runners were set in motion and the Japan catcher's throw sailed into left to allow Cabrera to cross the plate with the game's first run.

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Just one frame later, Watson reached on a one-out single through the right side. Japan pitcher Hiromi Ito tried to pick him off but his throw bounced past the first baseman and down the right-field line. Running aggressively, Watson raced around second forcing Japan to try to throw him out at third, but that throw also got away and Watson scored easily to put the U.S. up 2-0.

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Team USA tacked on an insurance run in the eighth to account for the 3-1 final score.

Once again it was Watson getting the ball rolling with an infield single. A sac bunt by Dominic Fletcher (Arkansas) and a groundout by Rutschman advanced him to third before a wild pitch brought him the final 90 feet.

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Watson, Z. cf / AB: 4 / Runs: 2 / Hits: 3 / RBI: 0

Cabrera, D. lf / AB: 3 / Runs: 1 / Hits: 2 / RBI: 0 / BB: 1

Hess did not pitch

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The U.S. took advantage of several uncharacteristic unforced errors by Japan to score its first two runs on Friday

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QUOTES
USA Baseball CNT Manager Paul Mainieri
"I had heard a lot about Savannah, the Bananas, and the crowds that they get so we were looking forward to coming here. It is such a great experience being here. The people were fantastic rooting us on and they seem like they just have an awful lot of fun in the stands here.

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I think the park and crowd freaked the Japanese players out. I have never seen even their little league teams have so many wild pitches (that scored runs) and errors (two on Zach Watson's score alone).

At first I thought it was kind of annoying and distracting. Though I still don't like that they blasted music right until the pitchers went into their windup and not totally sold on the crowd announcer in the cheetah suit with red and green knee-high socks. But, the other stuff did kind of grow on me. I loved the Turtle vs Toddler race. Very uneventful but very, very cute.



Team USA Takes Series Lead with 3-1 Win Over Japan