2011 Asia Series

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The 2011 Asia Series was the fifth time the Asia Series has been held, and the first after a two-year break. The tournament was held in Taiwan, the first time it has been held outside of Japan. Though originally scheduled to commence on 11 November, the tournament was postponed by two weeks to allow for the delayed finish to the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) season due to the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The new schedule has the opening games to be played on 25 November, and the championship game concluded the tournament on 29 November.[1]

As had been the case in previous tournaments, the winners of NPB's 2011 Japan Series, Korea Baseball Organization's (KBO) 2011 Korean Series and Chinese Professional Baseball League's (CPBL) 2011 Taiwan Series competed. Though originally included, no team represented the China Baseball League (CBL) due to ″concerns about the team's makeup″. An Australian team participated in the tournament for the first time: the Perth Heat were invited as winners of the Australian Baseball League's (ABL) 2011 Championship series.[2]

The Samsung Lions defeated the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in the title game to become the first non-Japanese champion. Starting pitcher Jang Won-Sam was named the MVP of the series.

Participating teams

League Team Qualification Location
Australian Baseball League Australia Perth Heat 2010–11 ABL champions Perth, Australia
Chinese Professional Baseball League Taiwan Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 2011 CPBL champions Tainan, Taiwan
Korea Baseball Organization South Korea Samsung Lions 2011 KBO champions Daegu, South Korea
Nippon Professional Baseball Japan Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 2011 NPB champions Fukuoka, Japan

Format

Each of the four teams participated in a round-robin series, playing each other team once. The two teams with the best win-loss percentage faced each other in the final, with the team finishing higher considered the "home team", meaning that they had the advantage of batting last. In previous tournaments, if teams were tied a series of tiebreakers were used to decide which teams qualified for the final and in what order, firstly using the head-to-head win-loss records amongst tied teams, and if necessary the ranking based on the lowest team run average.[1]

Round-robin stage

Pos Team W L Pct. GB R RA
1 Japan Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 3 0 1.000 – 19 5
2 South Korea Samsung Lions 2 1 .667 1 16 14
3 Taiwan Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 1 2 .333 2 11 14
4 Australia Perth Heat 0 3 .000 3 4 17
25 November 12:00 at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Australia Perth Heat 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 7 4
South Korea Samsung Lions 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 6 X 10 12 0
WP: Jang Won-Sam (1–0)   LP: Daniel Schmidt (0–1)
Home runs:
Australia: Allan de San Miguel (1)
South Korea: Shin Myung-Chul (1)
Attendance: 1,599
Boxscore
25 November 19:00 at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Taiwan Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 5 9 2
Japan Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 1 0 2 0 3 0 0 0 X 6 7 0
WP: Nagisa Arakaki (1–0)   LP: Ryan Glynn (0–1)   Sv: Takehito Kanazawa (1)
Attendance: 19,026
Boxscore
26 November 12:00 at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Japan Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 0 5 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 9 11 2
South Korea Samsung Lions 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 2
WP: Hiroki Yamada (1–0)   LP: Lee Woo-Seon (0–1)
Attendance: 7,131
Boxscore
26 November 18:00 at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E
Taiwan Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 3 10 0
Australia Perth Heat 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 4 3
WP: Wang Ching-ming (1–0)   LP: Cameron Lamb (0–1)   Sv: Lin Yueh-ping (1)
Attendance: 7,301
Boxscore
27 November 13:00 at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Japan Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 4 9 1
Australia Perth Heat 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3
WP: Sho Iwasaki (1–0)   LP: Trevor Caughey (0–1)
Attendance: 5,703
Boxscore
27 November 19:00 at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
South Korea Samsung Lions 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 2 1 6 10 1
Taiwan Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 3 6 1
WP: Kwon Oh-Joon (1-0)   LP: Ryan Glynn (0-2)   Sv: Oh Seung-Hwan (1)
Attendance: 12,000
Boxscore

Final

29 November 19:00 at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
South Korea Samsung Lions 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 5 8 0
Japan Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 10 1
WP: Jang Won-Sam (2–0)   LP: Sho Iwasaki (1–1)   Sv: Oh Seung-Hwan (2)
Attendance: 4,328
Boxscore

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Asia Series 2011 opens November 25" (Press release). International Baseball Federation. 19 May 2011. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  2. ↑ Stephan, Gene (19 May 2011). "Heat to take on Asia's best teams". The West Australian (Seven West Media Limited). Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2011.

External links