TOKYO — National team baseball manager Hirokazu Ibata said he will step down after Japan’s 8-5 loss to Venezuela in Miami in the quarterfinals of the World Baseball Classic.
The newspaper Sports Hochi reported Ibata saying it was his “intention to resign.”
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Japan is the defending champion and has won the event three times. It marked Japan’s first failure to reach the WBC semifinals despite a team stacked with major league talent, including Shohei Ohtani.
“The result is everything,” Sports Hochi reported Ibata saying. “Although we lost this time, I hope Japan will grow stronger and win next time.”
Japan was 4-0 in Tokyo in Pool C — victories over Taiwan, South Korea, Australia and the Czech Republic — before being eliminated by Venezuela in Miami.
The MLB players on the Japan team included: Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Seiya Suzuki, Yusei Kikuchi, Masataka Yoshida, Munetaka Murakami, Kazuma Okamoto and Tomoyuki Sugano.