First time in 25 yrs to Challenge `Continental Cup`

"Aren`t we the Dream Team?"

Thanks to active performance of college rookie players, the Korea national baseball team managed to advance in the finals of the 15t Continental Cup International competition for the first time in twenty-five years. The Korea national baseball team is consisting of players from four lowest ranking professional baseball teams and college baseball teams.

On 20t in Havana was the semi-final game between Panama and Korea.

The Korean starting pitcher, Ghi-pyo Kim (Kyungsung Univ.) obtained 6 strikeouts, 3 hits and without losing a point by 8th innings. First baseman In-hwan Ghu (Dong-eui Univ.) scored 4 hits, 5 points including a grand-slam homer. The team won with a 8-0 shutout victory.

For the first time twenty-five years, since Korea won the Nicaragua game in 1977 with Sun-hee Lee (current Samsung coach) as MVP, Korea competes with the powerful Cuba team in the final.

The home team, Cuba has won against Dominica in the semi-final with score 11-4, a 9th continuous victory since the first preliminary match.

The Korean pitcher Kim is an underhand-throw pitcher with ball speed about 130km, 10km slower than Byung-hyun Kim (Arizona) or Chang-yong Lim (Samsung). His main weapons are curve and sinker ball. The assessment shows that he has a strong nerve unlike most rookie college players. This is his second victory since the game against Italy on 13t (5inning, no point lost).

First baseman Ghu is also an obscure rookie who graduated from Busan High School. This is his first spotlight in fame.

Ghu managed a hit in the 2nd inning and score a point with the help of sacrifice fly ball by Byum-ho Lee (Hanhwa). In the 3rd inning, with the base loaded he scored a grand-slammer over the left fence which signaled the victory.

In the 4th inning, Korea team obtained another two points with Jin-young Lee`s second base hit. The Korea team won an easy victory against Panama, which had three major league players. Byung-yong Chae (SK) took the plate in the 9th inning as the finishing pitcher and caught two strikeouts and a hit without loosing a point and sealed the victory.

The victorious Korea team plans to put Dae-hyun Jung (SK) as the starting pitcher.

Jung achieved a victory with 4 hit and a point lost in semi-final game against Dominica on 18th. Throughout the competition, Jung has recorded 22 strikeouts, 10 hits, 3 points lost and pitched for 15 innings so far.

Hwan-Soo Zang zangpabo@donga.com