Baseball's Chunichi Dragons captured the franchise's first Asia Series title at Tokyo Dome on Nov. 11 after Hirokazu Ibata singled in the game-winning run in the ninth inning of the Dragons' 6-5 win over the Korea Series champion SK Wyverns in the championship game.

Dragons manager Hiromitsu Ochiai said the Dragons were under intense pressure during the tournament.

"It is always difficult to win," Ochiai said. "For example, against China we were losing and everyone expected us to win. That was the most pressure ever. It made quite a difference."

"We lost a game but we qualified for the final," Ochiai said. "It was a do-or-die situation. So I hope my players can learn a lot from this. If they learned something, that is worth more than the championship series."