U-12 baseball team finishes fifth at World Youth Baseball Classic after ‘last-inning walk-off’ loss

South Korean baseball hopefuls finished the 7th World Youth Baseball Classic in fifth place.

The Korean Under-12 National Baseball Team lost 4-5 in extra innings to Venezuela in the final game of the Super Round of the World Youth Baseball Classic in Tainan, Taiwan on Friday, falling short of advancing to the best-of-three tournament. The team finished the tournament in fifth place.

Venezuela struck first. After a fielding error in the top of the third inning allowed the leadoff batter to reach base, the team gave up a double to Angel Ivan, the team’s No. 1 hitter, with two outs. In the bottom of the fifth, after a walk and a hit-by-pitch, the team gave up a single to Alex Sandro with runners on first and second. With runners on second and third, he gave up a two-run double to Jose Castillo to make it 0-4.

The fightback began. In the top of the sixth inning, which could be their last offense, Yang Sang-myung doubled and Moon Jung-woo singled to bring in a run, and Lee Yi-jeong singled with runners on first and third to cut the deficit. The next two batters were stranded at second and third. Yoon Tae-woong hit a single to left to bring in both runners and tie the game in dramatic fashion. The national team held the game scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning to extend the game.메이저사이트

However, they failed to score in the top of the seventh inning. A sacrifice bunt with runners on first and second put runners on first and third, but a grounder to the shortstop left both runners out, ending the inning. In the bottom of the seventh inning, with runners on second and third, the opposing shortstop’s grounder to first base instead of home plate resulted in an unearned run and a 4-5 loss.

With all Super Round games completed, the Korean National Team tied with the Dominican Republic with a record of 1-4, based on the head-to-head record between the top three teams in the preliminary round (1-0) plus the three Super Round losses, but finished the tournament in fifth place, ahead of the Dominican Republic due to the winner-take-all rule. The team is scheduled to return home via Incheon International Airport on Monday, July 7.