South Korea’s baseball team, aiming for a fourth consecutive Asian Games gold medal, successfully tested the waters in its first and final practice game on 26 June .Head coach Ryu Jung-il’s team won 2-0 against the Armed Forces Athletic Corps (AFC) at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. The game lasted nine innings, with some of the national team’s players playing for the Commerce team in a compromise arrangement .Regardless of the score, the beginning and end of the ninth inning was played as a walk-off inning (starting the inning with runners on first and second base with no outs), and we asked them to lay down a sacrifice bunt when they had runners on base to check their defence. After the game, Liu said, “We had a practice game today to check the players’ condition. We checked their team play in various situations, as well as their offence and defence in the penalty shootout. “The national team’s pitchers were particularly impressive on the day .Starting with Kwak Bin (Doosan Bears – 3 innings, 3 hits, 1 strikeout), Won Tae-in (Samsung Lions – 2 scoreless innings), Jang Hyun-seok (Masan Yongmago – 1 inning, 2 strikeouts), Jung Woo-young (1 inning, 1 strikeout), Ko Woo-seok (LG Twins – 1 inning, 1 hit, 2 strikeouts), and Park Young-hyun (KT Wiz – 1 inning, 2 strikeouts) did not allow a single run. National team pitchers Moon Dong-ju (Hanwha Eagles – 3 innings, 2 hits, 5 strikeouts), Na Kyun-an (Lotte Giants – 2 innings, 1 hit, 1 strikeout) and Choi Ji-min (KIA Tigers – 1 inning, 1 hit, 1 strikeout), who pitched for Commerce, were also scoreless. Only Kim Young-kyu (NC Dinos) gave up a run in 1.2 innings, giving up two hits, one walk and striking out two .Coach Ryu said, “Overall, my pitching was good. We’ll have to think more about starting against Taiwan. “Relatively speaking, the batters struggled against the national team pitchers, but Moon Bo-kyung (LG) and Yoon Dong-hee (Lotte) were in good form, both going 2-for-3.Coach Ryu said, “The batters are in good swing form. In particular, Moon Bo-kyung showed good form.” The team will hold its final domestic training session at the same venue on the 27th before departing for 스포츠토토존 Hangzhou, China on the 28th.
