Korea beats Japan to keep baseball gold medal hopes alive

Baseball

Published: 05 Oct. 2023, 15:59 Updated: 05 Oct. 2023, 22:28

Korea beats Japan to keep baseball gold medal hopes alive

Roh Si-hwan celebrates after hitting an RBI single at the bottom of the eight inning to bring home Korea's second run in a 2-0 win over Japan in the super round of the baseball tournament at the Hangzhou Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Thursday. Roh was responsible for batting in both of Korea's runs in the game. [YONHAP]

The Korean baseball team beat old rivals Japan 2-0 in the super round at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Thursday, keeping their gold medal hopes alive with one game to go before the final.

It was an uneventful game at the Baseball Stadium in Hangzhou, China, with neither side able to break through across the first five innings.

Korea’s chance finally came in the sixth, where a sacrifice bunt from Choi Ji-hoon and a sac fly from Roh Si-hwan turned Kim Hye-seong’s opening double into a first run for Korea.

Korea’s second run was almost a perfect repeat of the first. Kim again got on base — this time with a walk — and Choi again deploying a sac bunt to push Kim to second.

Roh once again added the final push, a single to left field that allowed Kim to make it home.

Japan’s bats stayed quiet as Korea starter Park Se-woong gave up just two knocks in six innings work, striking out nine with two walks. Choi Ji-min took the mound in the seventh and gave up one hit, with Park Yeong-hyun covering the final two innings with two hits and no runs.

The win keeps Korea alive in the super round and comes as very bad news for Japan.

In the main Asian Games baseball tournament — there is a small preliminary round as well — teams compete in two groups with the top two teams from each group advancing to the super round. The game that each pair of teams from the same group played in the group stage carries over, giving two teams a one-win advantage in the knockout stage.

Chinese Taipei topped Group B and beat Korea in the process, so China entered the super round with one win. China did the same to Japan in Group A and also have one win.

Korea’s win on Thursday means that Korea, China and Chinese Taipei now have one win each, although Korea also has a loss. Japan has two losses.

Chinese Taipei and China are set to face off later on Thursday evening as of press time, with the winner of that game rising to the top of the group and the loser joining Korea with one win and one loss.

Korea will then face China on Friday, as Chinese Taipei take on Japan.

If Chinese Taipei beat China on Thursday and Korea beat China on Friday, it will be Chinese Taipei and Korea who meet in the gold medal game.

If instead China beat Chinese Taipei in the Thursday match and Korea wins the match against China on Friday, then knocked-out Japan would need to beat Chinese Taipei to ensure Korea reach the final.

A loss for Korea on Friday guarantees a one-way ticket to the bronze medal game.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]