South Korea secured a 6–4 victory over Taiwan at the Tokyo Dome on November 14, advancing to the championship game of the Asia Professional Baseball Championship.
The win left South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia tied at 1–2 behind an undefeated Japan in the preliminary standings, with South Korea advancing on the team quality balance tiebreaker.
South Korea leads early before Taiwan rallies
Park Jae-hyeon opened the scoring in the third inning with a solo home run for South Korea. Bases-loaded singles from Kim Hye-seong’s teammate Kim Whee-deup and Ahn Je-seok extended the lead to 3–0.
Taiwan erased the deficit in the fifth inning. Tseng Sheng-an hit a solo home run off South Korean starter Lee Ro-un, and Chang Jen-wei followed with a two-run blast to left field to tie the game at 3–3.
Lee finished his outing yielding three runs on three hits across six innings, striking out nine batters while throwing 97 pitches. He earned the win despite surrendering both home runs in that fifth-inning sequence.
Kim Do-young breaks the tie
Kim entered the game mired in an 8-at-bat, 1-hit slump across previous matches against Australia and Japan. Facing Taiwanese pitcher Chen Mu-heng in the fifth, the infielder connected on an off-speed pitch to restore a 4–3 advantage.
South Korea added insurance in the sixth inning when Cho Hyun-woo and Park Jae-hyeon hit consecutive doubles to make it 5–3. Tseng hit his second home run of the game in the seventh inning off pitcher Cho Dong-wook to bring Taiwan within one run.
Relief pitching secures the victory
Choi Ji-min escaped a jam in the seventh inning by retiring Chang on a popup to second base before throwing a scoreless eighth inning featuring a 150 km/h fastball. Moon Jung-bin provided a vital cushion in the seventh with a solo home run.
Park Jung-min closed out the ninth inning by inducing a popup from pinch-hitter Lin Hong-xian and retiring Tseng and Liu Chun-wei to earn the save.
Final showdown against Japan
South Korea advances to face tournament host Japan in the championship game on November 15 at 7:00 PM local time at the Tokyo Dome. Japan defeated South Korea 9–5 in their earlier preliminary meeting.
