baseball

South Korea beats Japan 4-3 to reach final of Premier 12

14 Comments

South Korea rallied with four runs in the ninth inning to beat Japan 4-3 and advance to the Premier12 baseball final on Thursday.

Lee Dae Ho, who plays in Japan's professional league, delivered the key hit with a bases-loaded single to left that scored two runs and made it 4-3.

"If you don't give up this is what can happen," South Korea manager Kim in Sik said. "It was an amazing game."

The South Koreans will face either the United States or Mexico in the final on Saturday.

The stunning comeback spoiled a stellar pitching performance by Japan starter Shohei Otani, who struck out 11 over seven innings while giving up one hit and walking one.

Sho Nakata singled to center as Japan got a runner on first with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Yoshitomo Tsutsugu and Takaya Nakamura both grounded out to end the game.

South Korea's rally started when pinch hitters Oh Jae Won and Son Ah Seop hit back-to-back singles.

Jeong Keun Woo doubled to make it 3-1, and Takahiro Norimoto hit Lee Yong Kyu with a pitch to load the bases, setting the stage for Lee's clutch hit.

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14 Comments
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Korea is the best team with best players in the tournament along with Japan. I am unsure whether the coach just wanted to get other pitchers in so they can get their shine or if he doesn't take this tournament seriously so wanted to rest Otani for next season. It was a bad bad decision to take Otani out of the game who had 11 strikeouts and almost a no-hitter going into the 7th.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

DaDude: Agreed. It was pure arrogance and the believe that they would sail through, so yes, the coach decided to put in players that hadn't gotten much of a chance yet, if at all. He admits it was his mistake.

Anyway, I know a WHOLE lot of people who did NOT want to talk about this today after bragging about the Samurai Japan team and how important this event was for more than a week now. Suddenly, "It has no meaning" anymore. In any case, good on South Korea -- obviously the better team. This takes a bit of the sting away from when they lost to Japan in the original WBC despite Japan losing the previous two games and their overall losses being higher.

I'm guessing we'll see a reply of the Olympics, when Japan counted baseball amongst their predicted gold medals and ended up in fourth. Hopefully it's vs. the US again, although I wouldn't mind seeing a US vs. Korea final.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

I'm glad Korea whooped Japan. Japan was very shady throughout the tournament. They rigged the event to give themselves every single advantage short of actually paying off the refs. Heres a few grievances

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/11/20/2015112001849.html

Highlights

-Changing the venue and not not notifying the Korean team until the last minute. This forced the Korean team to travel an additional 2 hours to the match.

-29 out of the 30 group stage matches were played in host country Taiwan. The only group stage match that wasn't played in Taiwan was Korea vs Japan. The Korean team had to travel all the way to Sapporo. Very suspicious.

-The Korea team was notified at the very last minute that the semi final match(against Japan) would be held at the Tokyo dome one day earlier than what was originally agreed upon. This sudden schedule change forced the Korean team to wake up at 3:30AM in the morning in order to fly from Taiwan to Japan. A tired and jet lagged Korean team still managed to beat Japan 4-3.

-The KBO has lodged a complaint over the blatant favoritism and rigging by Japan.

What comes around, goes around. It was gratifying to see the Samurai lose on home soil in front of 40,000 of their supporters.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

Tokyo Dome in absolute silence in the 9th inning, save for a small section of Korean fans..

3 ( +8 / -5 )

WatchingStuff and SmithinJapan, don't forget that Japan was already talking about their starting line up in the finals - PRIOR to their game with South Korea as reported by Mainichi newspaper- as if they knew they were going to the finals already before they even played South Korea.

Another interesting tidbid on Japanese team reported by Taiwan media, prior to Japan team leaving Taiwan - about how the team behaved drunkenly dallying around with Taiwanese hostess drinky girls.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

And JT can be bothered to include a picture of the winners to accompany this article.... Disgraceful.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Japanese TV will push back the final gold game match to a recorded (yes, they won't even bother a live broadcast because Japan is not in the final) broadcast on 3:45am. Now that really is disgraceful. Obviously the whole thing was bought, paid, and paid for by the Japanese sponsors. This "competition" should really disappear into oblivion, if their only goal is to make Japan look good in front of the world. All the participating teams in this competition should really think hard why they need to participate in this tournament.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Papi2013: "Now that really is disgraceful. Obviously the whole thing was bought, paid, and paid for by the Japanese sponsors. This "competition" should really disappear into oblivion, if their only goal is to make Japan look good in front of the world."

Exactly. Well, it was for those purposes and more specifically to try and make Japan look good as another reason to bring back baseball to the Olympics. How delicious that they should instead make Koreans look good. The silence at Tokyo Dome was deafening, and a very welcome sound, and the stuff you mention about them already talking about their starting line up is hilarious. I'm glad they brought the game back to Japan, and the whole entitlement think got a major slap in the face.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Japanese TV will push back the final gold game match to a recorded (yes, they won't even bother a live broadcast because Japan is not in the final) broadcast on 3:45am. Now that really is disgraceful. Obviously the whole thing was bought, paid, and paid for by the Japanese sponsors. This "competition" should really disappear into oblivion, if their only goal is to make Japan look good in front of the world. All the participating teams in this competition should really think hard why they need to participate in this tournament.

Unbelievable.. Tokyo is hosting the final and they won't even show it live because Japan isn't playing? Childish behaviour akin to sulking and taking all the toys home, a collective dummy spit.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Unfortunately if winning is everything, sometimes shady, questionable and possibly unethical practices can occur. Be gracious and embrace losing Samurai Japan for it will make you stronger. Don't hold grudges and move on. Just make sure you learn your lesson from your losses and strive not to make the same mistakes twice. There is always a next time.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The Japanese side is incredibly childish. They're such poor losers. Can't they just accept defeat graciously like the other countries? Especially when you rigged the event in your favor. Screwing the venue location, screwing transportation, screwing the match date, and now screwing the broadcasting time of the finals. All because you lost to Korea and couldn't get to the finals despite rampant corruption. The only thing you're succeeding at is embarrassing yourselves further.

It was extremely satisfying to see team Japan lose on home turf in front of 40,000 supporters.

In other news, KBO secretary general Yang Hae-young has announced that Korea might boycott the next tournament(assuming there is one) because of the rampant favoritism and shadiness of the tournament.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

The Japanese side is incredibly childish. They're such poor losers

Uh, you OK bro? You sound really bitter. Relax. Enjoy life.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

Wow, so much hate directed at kickboard!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I'm guessing we'll see a reply of the Olympics, when Japan counted baseball amongst their predicted gold medals and ended up in fourth.

Which is what happens when you count your chickens. For perspective, I didn't even know Australia had a baseball team till we beat Japan at the Athens 2004 olympics.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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