As expected, world superpower Japan ran over the Philippines, 1-18, in the opener of the  Asian Baseball Championship at the Pingtan Baseball Stadium in China last Monday.

It took the mighty Japanese six innings to bury the Nationals with Kumada Toyo scoring the first run, thanks to a sacrifice fly from Furukawa Tomoya in the first inning.

Yano Yukiya, Mizutani Shohei and Tsujimoto Yuki added three more runs in the second inning to make it 4-0 for the Japanese and set the stage for the impressive victory.

As if that wasn’t enough, Japan again unloaded six runs in the third inning courtesy of Furukawa, Matsuyama Shota, Yano, Tsujimoto, Kumada and Soeda Manemi.

The defending champions looked poised to finish off the Nationals in the fourth inning after Furukawa, Yano, Mizutani and Tsujimoto scoring four more runs for a 14-0 lead. 

But in the same inning, Lord Aragon de Vera scored for the Philippines off a run batted in from Joven Maulit.

After a scoreless fifth inning, the Japanese sealed the victory in the sixth inning with Soeda, Yoshikawa Kaito, Aizawa Ryosuke and Wada Keita scoring four more runs.

The Philippines will try to bounce back as it takes on host China on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. (Manila time).