AFC Champions League" Japan's "authentic" swords scored 6 hits in 2 games for the first time in team history! Director Iguchi: Sure enough, a home run...

[Sports Center/Comprehensive Report] In the preliminaries of the 2026 AFC Champions League, the Japanese team relied on Ryu Soyama to score 5 RBIs in a single game yesterday. In the end, the Japanese team defeated South Korea 9-5 and won its second consecutive victory. Japanese media "Nikkan Sports" pointed out that the Japanese team's first two bats, Tomoya Masaki and Rei Soyama, hit home runs in two consecutive games. This is the first feat achieved by the Japanese team in an international competition where professional players participate.

Satoshi Masaki also hit two homers against Taiwan in the first game of the AFC Champions League, and hit two runs against South Korea yesterday. Zongshan also hit one homer against Taiwan in the first game. Yesterday, he had two hits in a single game, including a three-run bomb in the eighth inning and five RBIs. Both of them hit three home runs in two games.

"Nikkan Sports" mentioned that Soyama was heavily rewarded in two consecutive international games. The last time a Japanese player achieved this record was in the 2007 Beijing Olympics Asian Qualifying Tournament. At that time, Shinyosuke Abe, who was playing for the Yomiuri Giants, was heavily rewarded in three consecutive games.

As for having a home run in two consecutive games and at least 3 hits in a single game, Soyama is the second player in the history of the Japanese team. The previous one is Yukio Tanaka, the Japanese ham star at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Supervisor Haruhito Iguchi of the Japanese team praised Soyama Raito after the game and thought his concentration was excellent. "Since yesterday, all our scores have been based on home runs. Although we also hope to have more offensive methods of accumulating points one by one, home runs are still efficient and great."

Iguchi Shihito also hopes that Soyama Rei can become the shortstop of the national team in the Olympics in the future. "He is currently working towards this goal. From this perspective, I think he has indeed delivered very good results."