South Korea beat Japan in men’s baseball 3-0 to win the Gold Medal at the Asian Games. This is the country’s third straight Asiad title for Baseball. In fact, throughout the history of the Asian Games, Korea has won 5 out of the 7 baseball titles since its beginning.
Korea won over Japan at the GBK Baseball Field in Jakarta, thus winning their first ever three-peat. Korea’s starter Hyeon-jong held over one hit over 6 innings. While their cleanup Park Byung-ho homered for the fourth straight time.
South Korea Bags Gold Medal: Their Journey to the Top
The South Korean National Team is managed by Sun Dong-yol. Sun is a former star pitcher. Also, the Korean team is the only professional team throughout the Asian Games. In the past two Asiads, the silver medalists Chinese Taipei, were composed of mostly amateur players. Japan, who got the bronze medals in the last two Asiads, are also a team of amateur players.
This is the 19th appearance of Korea in the Asian Games. They always participate in all of the tournaments except for the first one. Historically, their best record was back in 2002, there they won 96 gold, 80 silver, and 84 bronze medals. This year, Korea ranks third in medals. Korea has 49 Gold medals, Silver 58, and 70 bronze medals, with a total of 177.
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Korea, so to consistently be part of the top 3 in the Asiad is somewhat expected of the team. Of course, the National baseball team has always shown great skill and talent in the field, and they all deserve the success they have been receiving.
Photo credit: Tim Baseball Korea berhasil meraih medali emas pada Final Baseball Asian Games 2018 di Lapangan Baseball Senayan, Jakarta (31/8). (ANTARA FOTO/INASGOC/Nick Hanoatubun/MTG/18) from https://en.asiangames2018.id/news/photos/tim-baseball-korea-raih-emas-baseball/