Baseball players from South Korea overcame China 8-1 and will play Taiwan for the gold
South Korea defeated China 8-1 in the Asian Games Baseball Super Round on Saturday at the Shaoxing Baseball and Softball Sports Center in Zhejiang, China. South Korea, which defeated Japan the previous day (May 5), finished the Super Round with a 2-1 record, including one loss against Chinese Taipei, to advance to the final regardless of the outcome of the Chinese Taipei-Japan game later in the day. Chinese Taipei advanced to the final with a win over China the day before.
South Korea has won the tournament three times in a row, in Guangzhou 2010, Incheon 2014, and Jakarta-Palembang 2018. This will be their fourth consecutive title. The final between South Korea and Chinese Taipei will take place at 7 p.m. ET on Oct. 7.
South Korea’s bats exploded early to take an early lead. In the top of the second inning, Kang Baek-ho led off with a single to right and Kim Joo-won followed with a two-run home run to take the lead. It was Kim’s second home run of the tournament. After Kim Hyung-jun singled to left and Kim Hye-sung walked to load the bases, Choi Ji-hoon drove in another run with a sacrifice fly to center field.
South Korea tacked on more runs in the third and fourth innings as the center field lineup collected hits. Kang Baek-ho quenched his home run thirst with a solo shot to right in the third, and in the fourth, Kim Sung-yoon and Choi Ji-hoon singled to put runners on first and second, 바카라사이트 followed by Yoon Dong-hee’s RBI double and Noh Si-hwan’s sacrifice fly.
With runners on second and third and two outs in the eighth inning, Moon Bo-kyung hit a two-run double to left center field to seal the win. The South Korean lineup had hits from every batter in the lineup on the day. Korean starter Won Tae-in pitched six innings of three-hit ball, striking out six and walking none, avenging his early exit from the World Baseball Classic (WBC) against China in March.
China, on the other hand, scored a run in the bottom of the eighth inning against Jang Hyun-seok (Masan Yongmago), South Korea’s only high school pitcher. China made waves in the group stage with a 1-0 win over Japan, but two straight losses to Chinese Taipei and South Korea set up a bronze medal game with Japan.