Seibu Lions outfielder Tomoaki Sato singled home a pair of runs in the third inning and Japan held on for a 6-5 win over the Netherlands to finish the preliminary round of World Cup baseball with a perfect 6-0 mark.
With the victory at Tienmou Stadium, Japan finished on top of Group B and will face South Korea, the fourth-place finisher in Group A with a 5-2 mark, in the quarterfinals of the championship bracket Friday.
The match-up will be a replay of the bronze medal game at last year's Sydney Olympics won by South Korea 3-1. Hiroshima Carp infielder Akihiro Higashide got Japan rolling with a RBI double in the third inning off Dutch starting pitcher Uester Victoria and Sato capped the four-run outburst with a two-run single.
Japan starter Yuya Ando, however, gave up three runs in the fifth to let the Dutch back into the game before Takao Kinugawa of Nihon University and Orix BlueWave outfielder Ikuro Katsuragi drove in a pair of insurance runs in the seventh. The Netherlands finished the preliminaries 4-2 and will face Group A winner Taiwan on Friday.
Other qualifiers include defending champion Cuba and Panama from Group B and the United States and the Dominican Republic from Group A.