Couldn’t have been more perfect…Won Tae-in silences Chinese opposition to lead team to final

South Korea’s baseball team used a perfect two-hit combination to defeat China and punch its ticket to the final.

The South Korean baseball team, led by Ryu Jung-il, booked their place in the final with an 8-1 victory over China in the second game of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games Baseball Super Round on Saturday at the Shaoxing Baseball & Softball Sports Centre-Baseball in Hangzhou, China. South Korea, who improved to 2-1 in the Super Round including the group stage, will look to win their fourth consecutive title in the tournament when they face Chinese Taipei in the final on Sunday at 7 p.m. (KST).

Kim Joo-won (NC) hit a two-run double in the top of the second inning, and the bats pounded out 16 hits to take an early lead, while starting pitcher Won Tae-in (Samsung) also pitched well. Won, who had four days’ rest after the first game of the day against Hong Kong, faced 21 batters and shut down the Chinese bats with six innings of three-hit ball, striking out six.

In the top of the first inning, Wen drew a leadoff walk from Liang Fei and struck out the next batter, Lu Yun, on a fielder’s choice. Against the third batter, Ling, he induced a grounder to the second baseman to end the inning.

After getting out of the first inning with one strikeout, Won Tae-yin kept things rolling in the second inning with a grounder to shortstop by leadoff hitter Kou Yung-kang. Shortstop Kim Joo-won, who led off the inning with a double, gave Wontain a boost with a nimble move. He then retired the fifth batter, Chao Ze, on a swinging strikeout and gave up the first hit to the sixth batter, Chen Jiaji, in the second inning, but got the seventh batter, Zhang Wentao, to ground out to the second baseman to end the inning.

After a scoreless third inning, starter Wen Tae-yin did not surrender a run in the bottom of the fourth. He calmly handled a hard-hit ball from leadoff hitter Lu Yun to first base, and then struck out Ling Ling at third base. In the second inning, back-to-back singles by Kou Yung-kang and Chao Ze threatened to put runners in scoring position, but Chen Jia-jie flied out to center field to end the inning.안전놀이터

In the bottom of the fifth, Won Tae-in retired leadoff hitter Zhang Wentao on a single to third base. Third baseman Noh Si-hwan ran into foul territory and reached toward the third base dugout to catch the ball, relieving Won of the burden. With the help of his defense, Won quickly got the second out of the inning with a swinging strikeout to Yang Jin, and then got Dunan to fly out to center field to end the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Won struck out the next three batters, Liang Fei, Lu Yun, and Lining, before handing the mound over to Jung Woo-young (LG) for the top of the seventh. For Won, it was a satisfying day, both in terms of content and outcome.

In particular, Won had struggled against China in the group stage of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March this year, giving up two runs on three hits with one walk and three strikeouts in one inning. He was eager to erase the pain from that game and pitched his best game to give his team a valuable victory.