Premier 12: Korea suprises world

In the championship game Korea took on the USA. With solid pitching and defense the Korean kept the Americans in check.

The Koreans took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning and extended their lead with another run in the top of the third.

Keun-Woo Jeong led off the first with a single and stole second immediately. A double by Young-Kyu Lee drove in Jeong for Korea’s first run. Young-Kyu Lee drew a lead off walk, followed by a double by  Hyun-Soo Kim that drove in Lee for the second run for the Koreans.

But the fourth inning was really disastrous for the Americans.
With runner on the corners and an out, Young-Kyu Lee was hit by a pitch to load the bases. When Hyun-Soo Kim doubled down the right field line, he drove in two more runs for Korea. With runners in scoring position, Byung-Ho Park hit a towering homerun that cleared the left field wall of the Tokyo Dome to give his team a 7-0 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, the USA seemed to do something back as Matt McBride hit a lead off double down the left field line. As Tyler Pastornicky hit a ball off home plate that bounced towards the pitcher. But Pastornicky ran on the inside of the foul line and was hit by the throw of the pitcher and was called out. In the confusion Matt McBride tried to score, but the umpires sent him back to second base. Pastornick showed to be a bad sport as he freaked out about something that is a common rule.

In the eighth inning, Korea had a great scoring opportunity as they had runners on the corners with no outs. Hyun-Soo Kim hit a fly ball to right field that was caught by Matt McBride who fired the ball towards catcher  Dan Rohlfing and nailed Keun-Woo Jeong at homeplate for the double play.

With two outs in the bottom of the eight and a runner on first, Matt McBride hit a pop up. Three fielders approached the ball but eventually second baseman Keun-Woo Jeoung made a spectacular sliding catch to end the inning.

Another scoring opportunity occurred for the Koreans in the top of the
ninth as they loaded the bases with two outs. When Keun-Woo Jeong drew a bases loaded walk, all runners advanced a base, to give Korea an 8-0 lead.

In the bottom of the ninth, Korean manager In Sik Kim entered closer Taeh-Yon Chong, who retired the side for the Korean win.

Korean starter Kwang-Hyun Kim earned the win by pitching five innings in which he gave up four hits and struck out five.
Best hitter for Korea in this game was Hyun-Soo Kim, who went 3 for 5 with three RBI.

Hyun-Soo Kim was named MVP

In a vote on twitter, many considered the USA as big favorites, but Korea proved that with solid defense and timely hitting you win games.