S. Korea falls to Australia to open regional baseball tournament
Kim Ju-won of South Korea gestures to teammates after hitting a two-run home run during the bottom of the sixth inning of a game between South Korea and Australia at the Asia Professional Baseball Championship in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday. AP-Yonhap
Korea lost to Australia 7-8 in its first game of a regional baseball tournament in Tokyo on Thursday as its comeback effort went for naught.
Korea rallied from a 4-0 deficit to take a 6-4 lead, only to give up four runs over the final two innings in the teams' first game of the Asia Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) at Tokyo Dome.
This is the third edition of the tournament, which also features the host country Japan and Taiwan. Japan won the first two editions, with Korea finishing as the runner-up on both occasions.
The APBC is for players aged 24 years and younger or those with no more than three years of professional experience. Teams can each take up to three players who are between 24 and 29 years old.
Korea, made up mostly of young Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) stars, will next face Japan at 7 p.m. Friday and then Taiwan at 7 p.m. Saturday. After round-robin play, the two worst teams will square off in the third-place game at 11 a.m. Sunday, and the top two nations will clash in the final at 7 p.m. Sunday.
Australia opened the scoring in the top of the first inning, courtesy of Blake Cavill's three-run home run off starter Kim Min-jun.
The Australian lead grew to 4-0 on Chris Burke's RBI single off new pitcher Cho Dong-uk.
But Korea erased that deficit with a six-spot in the sixth.
Kim Ju-won sparked the rally with a two-run homer off Cooper Morgan. Then three straight walks loaded the bases for Kim Whee-jip, who cleared the bases with a double that gave Korea a 5-4 lead.
Park Jae-hyun then greeted new pitcher Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis with an RBI single as Korea took a 6-4 lead.
Australia tied the game in the top of the eighth as Clayton Campbell launched a two-run homer off reliever Park Jeong-min, Korea's fifth pitcher of the game.
In the ninth, Australia opened up an 8-6 lead against the next pitcher, Choi Jun-yong.
Alex Hall led off the inning with a single. Two batters later, Burke's ringing double to right-center field scored Hall for a 7-6 lead.
Choi retired Cavill on a flyout but failed to get past Max Durrington, who doubled home Burke to put Australia ahead 8-6.
Korea had runners at second and third with one out in the bottom of the ninth, a promising rally with the heart of its lineup coming up. Kim Do-yeong, who led the KBO with 45 home runs this year, delivered a sacrifice fly to cut the Australian lead to 8-7. But with the tying run standing at third, Ahn Hyun-min popped out to second baseman Byron Armstrong to end the game.