The Korean national baseball team has failed to advance to the 2024 WBSC Premier 12 Super Round. Unfortunately, the team has found a new closing pitcher who will take responsibility for the next 10 years. KT Wiz closer Park Young-hyun has emerged as a new leader by banking on his strong fastball.
South Korea, led by head coach Ryu Joong-il, will play its final Group B match against Australia at 1 p.m. on the 18th (Korea Standard Time) at Tianmu Stadium in Taipei, Taiwan.
Korea, which had two wins and two losses, has been confirmed to be eliminated from the group stage, trailing Japan (4 wins) and Taiwan (3 wins and 1 loss). It is the first time that Korea, which won the first competition in 2015 and was the runner-up at the 2019 competition, failed to advance to the semifinals.
Despite the disappointing result of elimination from the group stage, the young national team was able to confirm many things in this tournament with an average age of 24.6. Above all, Park Young-hyun’s discovery of locking the back door of the national team firmly is one of the biggest gains.
Park Young-hyun, who led the team to win the gold medal as a bullpen pitcher at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, has emerged as the best closing pitcher of the year with a strong fastball over 150km.
Park Young-hyun, who played in 66 games in the KBO League this year and harvested 10 wins, 2 losses, and 25 saves, also showed off his overwhelming ball power in the national team, which has five finishers from each team, to secure the closure.
Among the prominent players such as Yoo Young-chan (LG), Jung Hae-young (KIA), Kim Taek-yeon (Doosan), and Cho Byung-hyun (SSG), he has been reborn as the guardian deity of the national team. 메이저사이트
Park Young-hyun is continuing the finishing lineup, which was once represented by Oh Seung-hwan (Samsung). Oh and Park share the commonality that they throw powerful fastballs. “A finishing pitcher should have the ball power to strike out,” Ryu said, while Park Young-hyun is capable of being a “Doctor K.”
He is showing his best performance in this competition as well. He played in two games, three ⅔ innings, boasting one win and zero ERA.
In particular, in the match against Dominica on the 15th, he took the mound with one out in the eighth inning when he was trailing 4-6 and became a winning pitcher with five outs.
Amid Park Young-hyun’s good pitching, South Korea scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and wrote a reversal drama. “I went to the mound with the mindset that the team would win if I blocked him,” he said, smiling, “There were many difficult situations, but everyone didn’t give up.”
Ryu has strong faith in Park Young-hyun. “Park Young-hyun has the best ball power in his team,” the coach said. “I don’t know if he will continue to finish in his team or switch to starting, but I believe he will be the best finish if he continues to finish.”
