Samurai Japan's young players grabbed their manager, Astunori Inaba, and threw him in the air once and then twice, before seemingly needing a few seconds to regroup before sending him up once more.
It was about the only thing that didn't go smoothly for Japan in the final round of the inaugural Asia Professional Baseball Championship (APBC). Then again, this tournament was about the future, and Inaba's band of under-24s have plenty of time to work on their victory toss technique.
Kazuto Taguchi threw seven scoreless innings, Shuta Tonosaki sparked a big night at the plate with a pair of RBIs and Inaba led Japan to a title in his managerial debut with a 7-0 thumping of South Korea in the APBC final in front of a crowd of 30,498 on Sunday night at Tokyo Dome.
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