The Korean national baseball team, which overcame many hardships, including injuries to key players, poor batting, and a complete defeat against Japan, won the gold medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Korea, led by coach Ryu Ji-hyun, won 3-1 in the final against Japan held at Toyohashi City Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 27th.
With this, they have won the Asian Games for the fifth time in a row, starting with the 2010 Guangzhou Games.
The journey to victory was not smooth even before the national team was called up.
Leading hitter Kim Do-young (KIA Tigers) fractured his nose after being hit in the face by his own bunt during a game on the 9th.
Kim Do-young underwent surgery, and after considering whether to replace the player, the national team decided to play the tournament with him.
The national team, which was convened on the 14th, worked hard in the final evaluation match against Sangmu on the 17th.
The batting line had little power and the pitcher was shaky. In the 8th inning, when they were down 3-6, they scored 4 points and won 7-6 with Kim Kun-hee's walk-off hit.
After arriving in Nagoya, Japan, the ‘land of decisive battle’, on the 18th, I had to prepare my training location again.
Since the organizing committee did not announce the official training time and location until the afternoon of the previous day, the first local adaptation training was held at an indoor training center secured in advance by the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO).
Washing uniforms was also a problem. Since the service provided by the tournament cannot handle the laundry demands of players who play every day, the KBO signed a separate contract with a local company.
Even after the game started, my worries did not go away.
Korea defeated Chinese Taipei, their first opponent in the group stage, 5-0 on the 21st, but starter Lin Yi-wei allowed only one hit and one run in five innings.
Starting pitcher Kwak Bin (Doosan Bears) pitched 6 innings, allowing no hits and no runs, which was the stepping stone to victory.
The batting lineup seemed to be revitalized by winning cold games in succession against Hong Kong (13-0) and Thailand (18-1), but suffered a blow in the Super Round match against Japan on the 25th.
The Korean batting lineup struggled with Japanese starter Shin Higuchi.
Korea, which had gone 7 innings with 4 hits and no scores, also hit 3 double plays and lost 0-5.
It was the first time in 20 years since the 2006 Doha Games that the team lost to Japan in the Asian Games, and the loss shattered their dream of winning the championship.
We were in a situation where we had to consider the results of other games in order to advance to the finals.
To make matters worse, rain became a variable in the final match of the Super Round against China the day before.
The game started an hour later than scheduled.
Korea gave up the first run in the top of the first inning, but Choi Min-seok (Doosan)'s 1-run pitch in 7 innings and the batting line's counterattack earned them a 9-2 comeback victory and advanced to the finals.
Even before the final on the 27th, rain fell in Toyohashi, drawing attention to whether the game would be held.
If the finals are not held in a situation where there is no reserve date, Korea (2 wins, 1 loss) fell behind Japan (3 wins) in the super round, so it could automatically end up in a silver medal position.
However, the rain miraculously abated just before the game and the game started as scheduled, and Korea defeated Japan 3-1 thanks to ace ace Kwak Bin's pitching of 1 run in 6⅓ innings and Kim Do-young's winning hit in the '8th inning of promise'.
Ji-Hyun Ryu, who shook off the worries that had persisted both inside and outside the stadium even before being called up, completed his fifth consecutive victory in the Asian Games by overcoming Japan, who had lost once, on the final stage.
