On September 11, 2026, Japan’s U-18 national team faced South Korea in the Super Round of the U-18 Asian Baseball Championship. Japan started Maho Sugimoto of Omi High School, and South Korea’s decision to hold back pitcher Oda — who had been widely tipped as the starter — drew surprised reactions on the thread. Commenters in the live thread also latched onto details beyond the game itself, like the stadium’s spacious 102m foul lines and 122m to center, and an oddball mascot that can only throw underhand, while the back half of the thread saw some debate over what the preliminary round even accomplished.
Get at least one strike in before they pull you, come on
91AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:09
Is this Roger Clemens or what
92AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:09
Re: #91
Oh, you mean Clements from Kochi Chuo? Yeah, fair enough lol
96AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:11
Isn't this backdoor pitch really tough to hit?
110AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:20
First time this tournament it's actually looked like normal baseball
114AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:22
Re: #110
Pretty much how it goes every tournament
149AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:45
Did the preliminary round even matter?
151AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:46
Re: #149
Not in the sense of deciding a champion
It's also meant to grow the sport by getting more countries involved
Background and Discussion Points
The U-18 Asian Baseball Championship is structured so that teams who advance from the preliminary round move into a round-robin “Super Round.” Some posters on the thread, like >>149, questioned what the point of the preliminary round even was, but as >>151 explains, the tournament isn’t only about crowning a champion — it’s also meant to grow the sport across Asia by involving more participating countries. That’s not obvious from the standings alone, but tournaments built around this kind of grassroots-growth goal aren’t unusual. There was also chatter suggesting South Korea was “getting complacent” by not starting the pitcher they’d been expected to feature, but that could just as easily reflect pitch-count management or a rotation built around the final — reading intent or overconfidence purely from a lineup decision is jumping the gun.
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