Korean baseball wins against Venezuela 13 to 2

The Korean national baseball team has swept its opponent in a called game, recovering its reputation from their poor performance in the opening.

The Korean team, ranked eighth in the world, won against Venezuela (ranked tenth) 13 to 2 in the seventh inning in a called game in the group B of World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier 12 held in Taipei, Taiwan. This is the first called game in the tournament.

Korea gained 3 points in the bottom of the first inning, continuing its earlier upturn of making 10 points on the previous day. Venezuelan manager Luis Sojo had pitcher Carlos Monasterio (29) substituted before even the first inning finished and kept changing pitchers strategically. However it was not enough to stop its strong opponent.

In this match, the outstanding hitter was inarguably Hwang Jae-gyun (28, Lotte). Hwang hit consecutive homeruns against Venezuela`s third pitcher Robert Palencia (29) and fourth pitcher Jhonny Caraballo (30) in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively. With two homers that bounced off the top of the fence in left field, Hwang hit safely in the remaining two attempts and finished the match with four bits out of four.

"I just tried to hit safely rather than trying to hit homeruns, but the balls were thrown in a convenient way for me to hit homeruns," Hwang told reporters after the match. "I felt bad about making a mistake in defense, but thankfully I did well at bat." Hwang made a mistake when throwing the ball in defense in the first half of the third inning, but it did not lead to a loss.

The starting pitcher Lee Dae-un (26, Chiba Lotte) had a successful debut in the national team with two losses (one homerun) in five innings. Lee struck out six hitters on the day with various pitching arsenals including three fork balls, two sweepers, and one curve ball.

"Since some players including Lee Yong-gyu (30, Han-hwa) and Min Byung-hun (28, Doosan) are suffering from minor injuries, we cancelled the training scheduled for tomorrow and will take a break," Korean national team manager Kim In-sik remarked after the match. Korea has won twice and lost once and will move to Tianmu Baseball Stadium for the fourth match with Mexico at 7 p.m. (Korean time) on Friday.