(Asiad) Nat'l baseball team squeezes past minor league club in scrimmage
NAGOYA, Japan, Sept. 17 (Yonhap) -- The Asian Games-bound national baseball team narrowly avoided a loss to a minor league club in a scrimmage in Seoul on Thursday.
Managed by Ryu Ji-hyun, South Korea beat the military club Sangmu 7-6 in an unofficial, eight-inning game at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul.
Park Jun-soon of South Korea celebrates after hitting a two-run single against Sangmu during a scrimmage ahead of the Asian Games baseball tournament at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Sept. 17, 2026. (Yonhap)
The national team is made up of stars from the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). Sangmu plays in the second-tier Futures League.
Manager Ryu sent eight of his 11 pitchers to the mound, each throwing around 30 pitches. Three starters, Gwak Been, Choi Min-seok and So Hyeong-jun, did not see action.
Two left-handers struggled, with Oh Won-seok giving up four hits and two runs in one inning, while Bae Chan-seung surrendered four runs on five hits while retiring just one batter.
On the other hand, six other pitchers all put up zeroes on the board.
South Korea trailed 6-3 entering the eighth inning, and it had runners at first and second to simulate an extra-inning situation at the Asian Games.
From there, South Korea scored four runs, thanks to hits by Park Jun-soon and Kim Gun-hee.
The national team is scheduled to leave for Nagoya on Friday and start the competition on Monday with a 6:30 p.m. game against Chinese Taipei, considered the biggest threat to South Korea's quest for its fifth consecutive gold medal.
South Korean reliever Park Yeong-hyun pitches against Sangmu during a scrimmage ahead of the Asian Games baseball tournament at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Sept. 17, 2026. (Yonhap)
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.