Baseball: Perfect Hayakawa leads Japan rout of Australia

Lefty Takahisa Hayakawa struck out seven over five perfect innings as Japan completed the round-robin phase of the Asia Professional Baseball Championship with a 10-0 win over Australia on Saturday. Japan, without most of its top-tier domestic talent for the tournament at Tokyo Dome, will play either Taiwan or South Korea in Sunday's final after ending its penultimate game in eight innings via the mercy rule. Hayakawa left with a 5-0 lead in a game in which every Samurai Japan batter reached base. "That was some excellent pitching," said new Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata said. "We've pitched we...