The Korean baseball team advances to the super round with an 18-1 cold game win over Thailand.

(Toyohashi [Japan] = Yonhap News) Reporter Kyung-yoon Kim = The Korean national baseball team, led by coach Ji-hyun Ryu, easily defeated the underdog Thailand with two grand slam home runs and advanced to the super round as first place in the group.

The national team defeated Thailand 18-1 in a cold game in the 5th inning in the third game of the Group B league held at Toyohashi Citizen Baseball Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 23rd.

Korea, which beat Taiwan 5-0 and Hong Kong 13-0 (7th cold game), secured first place in the group with three consecutive wins.

With one win against the second place team in Group B, Korea will play the super round against the first and second places in Group A from the 25th to the 26th.

Second place in Group B is likely to be Taiwan, which will play Hong Kong this afternoon.

The top two teams in the super round will play in the finals, and the bottom two teams will play in the bronze medal match. All medal matches will be held on the 27th.

The national team took the lead in the first inning on a walk and stolen base by Jae-Hyun Park (KIA Tigers), a walk by Dong-Hee Yoon (Lotte Giants), and an advanced base hit by Do-Young Kim (KIA) with one out and a sacrifice hit to right field by Noh Si-Hwan (Hanwha Eagles).

Afterwards, Moon Bo-kyung (LG Twins) exploded with a two-run home run to make it 3-0.

In the second inning, Jae-Hyun Lee (Samsung Lions), Gun-Hee Kim (Kiwoom Heroes), and Jun-Jae Jeong (SSG Landers) had a chance to load the bases with no outs thanks to three consecutive hits by batters, and then Jae-Hyun Park hit a superior grand slam to immediately widen the score to 7-0.

In the third inning, Lee Jae-hyeon's walk and Kim Geon-hee, Jeong Jun-jae, and Park Jae-hyun's three consecutive hits added three runs and ran away to 10-0.

The national team attacked the Thai mound in the fourth inning as well.

Park Jun-soon (Doosan Bears) and Moon Hyun-bin's consecutive hits, Lee Jae-hyun's sacrifice hit, and Kim Do-young's timely hit made it 14-0, and Park Jun-soon, who came to the plate after one batter, hit a grand slam to the left to make it 18-0.

In this baseball tournament, a game is called a cold game when the lead is 15 points in the 5th inning or 10 points or more in the 7th inning (excluding finals).

Korea lost one run in the 5th inning when center fielder Kim Ji-chan (Samsung) missed a fly ball in the 5th inning with 2 outs and runners on first base.

Jae-Hyun Park went 2-for-2 with 2 hits, 1 home run, 2 walks, 5 RBI, and 3 runs, and Jun-soon Park went 2-for-2 with 2 hits, 1 home run, 4 RBI, and 2 runs.

The national team's mound, which achieved team perfection in the match against Hong Kong the previous day, also tightly packed Thailand's batting lineup on this day.

Starter Oh Won-seok went 4 innings with 1 hit, 7 strikeouts, no walks, and no runs, while Bae Chan-seung (Samsung) took the mound in the 5th inning and allowed 1 hit and 1 run (non-earned) in 1 inning.

◇ 23rd record (Toyohashi Citizen Baseball Stadium)

▲ Baseball Group B group stage 3rd game

Thailand (1 win, 2 losses) 000 01 - 1

Korea (3 wins) 343 8X - 18 <5th cold game>

△ Winning pitcher = Oh Won-seok (1 win)

△ Losing pitcher = Alexander Clark (1 loss)

△ Home run = Moon Bo-kyung No. 1 (1st inning, 2 runs) Park Jae-hyeon No. 1 (2nd inning, 4 runs) Park Jun-soon No. 1 (4 runs in the 4th inning, above for Korea)