Great Explosion of Yushin High’s Bat

In the second day of the 58th Golden Lion pennant, a nationwide senior high school baseball tournament (held under the sponsorship of both Donga Ilbo and the Korea Baseball Association) in Dongdaemun Stadium on June 25, Jinheung High of Gwangju, the “standard-bearer” of Honam, and the “dark horse” Yushin High passed the first round with ease.

Jinheung High produced the third come-from-behind victory of the tournament while Yushin High won by a called-off game. Jinheung High, which has not shown any results to speak of since they produced big-shot pitcher Kim Jin-woo (currently on the Kia Tigers team) in 2002, bragged of their mighty firepower with three homers and 12 hits against Kyungju High.

Jinheung High allowed Kyungju’s fourth batter, Jung Myung-hyun, a sudden two-run homerun to deep center field in the first inning, but soon overturned the game in the fourth inning by Huh Woong’s triple to left field. In the beginning of the ninth inning with the score 4-2, Jinheung’s third batter, Jun Joon-ho, and the following one, Yang Dong-il, hit back-to-back homers to clinch the victory.

The “carriage and pair” of Jinheung’s mound, Jung Gi-yang and Jung Young-il, pitched in succession to hold Kyungju’s batters to only four hits and two runs during eight innings. Above all, Jung Young-il (height 1m 85cm, weight 86kg), who is called “the second Kim Jin-woo,” took the mound in the seventh inning and made himself proud by pitching three strikeouts and allowing only one hit and no runs. His fastball reached 139km/h.

Daegu High could not be a match for the rising powerful team of Yushin High.

Yushin has a short baseball history of only 20 years, but their power has risen suddenly. Last year, they won their first nationwide victory in the Mitchuhol pennant mainly with freshman and junior players and went on to the semifinals in the Presidential pennant this year. Some scouts even expect them to be the winner of the tournament because they have a well-formed batting order and a strong bullpen.

Five hits and six runs including Park Min-chan’s grand slam concluded Yooshin’s early victory in the third inning when they led the game by a score of 2-0.

All-around player Choi Jung-eun, SK Wyverns’ first pick in the draft, who has the ability to play both pitcher and infielder positions and who is even more notably strong in batting, showed his ultra high school level by getting three hits in three at-bats, two of which were doubles.

-- First Round

Jinheung High 000 301 006 10

Kyungju High 200 000 002 4

Daegu High 000 002 2

Yooshin High 116 004 12

(game called off in the sixth inning)

Sang-Soo Kim Jong-Seok Kim ssoo@donga.com kjs0123@donga.com