Japanese National Team Manager Hoshino Senichi said on Sunday that his squad must "challenge" China in the third of three preliminary matches at the "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 International Baseball Tournament on Monday.

Though widely regarded as the favorite of the tournament coming in, Japan has been pushed to 11 innings en route to winning its first two matches against the Czech Republic and France.

Traditionally among the world's top baseball teams, Japan has won two bronze medals - in Barcelona and Athens - and was also a silver medalist at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.

With that history in mind, Senichi was unsatisfied with his players after their second tough 11-inning victory in as many nights, this, a 4-3 victory over France.

"We got two hard victories after playing 11 innings. [Should this be] the level of players from Japanese professional baseball? If the players cannot implement my tactics, we cannot go further. We must improve ourselves and make progress," Senichi said.

"The Chinese team has many veteran players and strong batters, while our players are very young. We must forget our fame and challenge them in order to get a victory. It will be a hard game."

The third round of preliminary matches will be played on Monday with France taking on the Czech Republic at 18:00 on the main field at Wukesong and China playing against Japan at 19:00 on Wukesong Field 2.

(BOCOG August 20, 2008)