U-23 Baseball World Cup: Korea open Super Round beating China, historic South African win in Placement Round
The WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2024 is down to the second round.
The Super Round (places 1-6) opened at 10:00 (local time), with World No. 6 Korea defeating No. 24 China.
The other two games are scheduled for 19:30: No. 10 Puerto Rico-No. 17 Nicaragua and No. 5 Venezuela-No. 1 Japan.
World No. 31 South Africa, No. 3 Chinese Taipei and No. 7 Netherlands opened the Placement Round (7-12) with wins.
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See how things went in the Placement Round
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Korea-China 7-2
Right-hander Hyunseok Choi took a perfect game into the seventh, and Korea beat China, manufacturing the lead with a mix of running game and timely hitting.
Right-hander Hyunseok Choi took the mound for Korea. China handed the ball to right-hander Yuyun Lin.
Korea had the first scoring opportunity in the bottom of the second. Donhyun Kim grounded into an inning-ending double play with runners at second and first and one out.
Hyunseok Choi navigated through three perfect innings and Korea took the lead in the bottom of the third on three hits by Hojung Song, Hyunjong Kim and Daeseon Jeong.
China handed the ball to Jian Yi with runners at the corners. With his fourth pitch, the right-hander got Donghyun Kim to line into an inning-ending double play.
China manufactured their third double play of the game to end the bottom of the fourth. With runners at third and second, reliever Jie Zhou got Hojung Song to line out at shortstop and Qiroi Wu picked the runner away from the third base bag.
Choi didn't allow China a runner through five innings, while striking out nine.
Korea opened the score in the bottom of the fifth through a mix of running game and timely hitting. Anseok Jeong, Daeseon Jeong, Siang Kim and Doohyun Kim hit RBI singles, Korea stole second three times and China called Huachen Fu, their fourth pitcher, from the bullpen.
Choi took his perfect game into the top of the seventh and left after Xudong Zhu bunted for the hit becoming China's first runner of the game.
Korea handed the ball to Baeksan Kim, who loaded the bases and allowed Yuyang Li a two-RBI single that put China on the scoreboard.
Left-handed Jaeyoung Song took the mound to get the last out of the game.
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Read also
- Super Round Preview
- Day 5 Recap
- Day 4 Recap
- Day 3 Recap
- Day 2 Recap
- Day 1 Recap
- Pre-Tournament press conference
- Where to watch
- Korea preview
- China preview
- Puerto Rico preview
- Venezuela preview
- Nicaragua preview
- Japan preview