The Korean baseball team, which is currently training ahead of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), won their first match with Kang Baek-ho and Choi Jeong-ui. 안전놀이터 The baseball team led by coach Lee Kang-cheol defeated the NC Dinos 8-2 at the Veterans Memorial Stadium in the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona on the 17th (Korean time). The national team will have four more evaluation matches here against the KIA Tigers (20th), kt Wiz (23rd and 25th), and the LG Twins (27th).
The national team played the game with three kt players as Kim Ha-seong (San Diego Padres) and Tommy Hyeon-soo Edman (St.
Kwang-Hyun Kim (SSG Landers), Young-Pyo Ko (kt), Cheol-Won Jung (Doosan Bears), Tae-In Won (Samsung Lions), Woo-Young Jung (LG), Eui-Ri Lee (KIA), Woo-Seok Ko (LG) 7 pitchers from the national team took charge of one inning and checked their condition by filling in a certain number of pitches. Kim Gwang-hyun threw the most with 21, and Ko Young-pyo threw the least with 16. It is the first time that national team pitchers have thrown the WBC official ball in practice.
Jung Woo-young tied 2 hits and 1 ball that hit the body and scored 2 runs (unearned). Kim Gwang-hyun, Ko Young-pyo, and Won Tae-in each recorded two strikeouts. Manager Lee Kang-cheol introduced that the pitchers did not have much difficulty when throwing two-seam fastballs, but had some difficulties when throwing sliders. Center fielder Lee Jung-hoo (Kiwoom Heroes), shortstop Oh Ji-hwan (LG), third baseman Choi Jeong (SSG), Designated hitter Park Byeong-ho (kt), left fielder Kim Hyeon-soo (LG), right fielder Na Seong-beom (KIA), first baseman Kang Baek-ho (kt), catcher Lee Ji-young (catcher), second baseman Kim Hye-seong (Lee Sang-kiwoom) hit 14 hits. and hit the NC mound. Kang Baek-ho got 2 hits in 4 at-bats, including the first two-runner in right-middle, and Park Hae-min, who replaced Lee Jung-hoo, who only had no hits in 2 at-bats, got 2 hits in 3 at-bats. Choi Jeong-i hit a solo home run over the left fence, and all eight starting hitters except Lee Jung-hoo recorded one hit each. Among the substitutes, Yang Eui-ji (Doosan) and Choi Ji-hoon (SSG) each had no hits in two at-bats. Overall, it seemed that the pace of the batters came up earlier than the pitchers.On this day, scouts from nine MLB teams and reporters from Japan, who will compete against Korea in the WBC, showed keen interest. The national team, which takes a day off on the 18th, plans to continue training from the 19th with a three-day training and one-day rest pattern.