U18 Asian Youth Championship: South Korea defeated Japan 3-2, head coach Zheng Haojin affirmed the players' performance

In the U18 Asian Youth Baseball Championship super round robin, the South Korean team defeated the Japanese team 3-2. As long as the South Korean team defeats the Philippines tomorrow, it is almost certain to advance to the championship game. "I want to show everyone that Korean amateur baseball is not bad, and we are competitive enough," said Jung Ho-jin, the head coach of the South Korean team.

Jung Ho-jin believes that the key to this game is pitcher Kim Min-hoon who defended the bases-loaded crisis in the second inning. "If the score difference had been widened at that time, this game would have become difficult to win. Thanks to Min-hoon for blocking this crisis, the line gradually improved after that, and we were able to win in the end."

Kim Min-hoon played 2.2 games in this game without losing any points and only allowed 1 hit. South Korea's ace Ha Xiancheng backed up the score in 3 games.

Korean media "Sports Seoul" reported that Jung Hyo-jin said, "It seems that it took a long time for our national team to defeat Japan again. The players all have the belief of 'fight hard', 'win the championship', 'we can win', as well as the pride, sense of mission and responsibility of being the South Korean representative team. It is precisely because of these strong forces that we were able to win."

The South Korean team has defeated the Taiwanese team and the Japanese team in this tournament and is expected to advance to the finals. Zheng Xingzhen said, "If we win the championship, we can continue this momentum at the (Nagoya) Asian Games and let the seniors perform well again. Since we juniors have done it, the seniors should be able to do it again."

The 2026 Nagoya Asian Games will debut on September 19. The South Korean team will challenge for its fifth consecutive championship. The first game will be against the Taiwan team on the 21st.