South Korea’s youth baseball team falls short of final in upset loss to USA

The South Korean National Baseball Team’s hopes of reaching the final of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-18 World Youth Baseball Championship (Baseball World Cup) have been dashed.

The U-18 team, coached by Lee Young-bok (Chungam-Go), suffered a 1-5 upset loss to the United States in their Super Round game on Sunday in Taipei, Taiwan.메이저놀이터

South Korea, which lost 1-7 to Japan in the first game of the Super Round the day before, failed to advance to the final after dropping the game to the United States.

South Korea, who slipped to fifth place (1-3) in the Super Round of qualifying, will play the Netherlands in the final match of the Super Round on Monday. A victory over the Dutch would put them in the bronze medal game.

Hwang Jun-seo took the loss after allowing four runs on six hits with one walk and six strikeouts in 4⅔ innings. He was scoreless through four innings, but faltered in the fifth.

The offense was unable to capitalize on the American mound and managed just four hits. Jung Ahn-seok went 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored, but it wasn’t enough.

South Korea took the lead in the top of the fourth inning when Jeong Ahn-seok singled, Dong-gun Yeo followed with a sacrifice bunt and Park Ji-hwan grounded into a double play.

However, they gave up four runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 1-0 lead.