Deoksu’s Game-Defining Two-Run Homer

“The score was overturned, then overturned again, to be overturned yet another time…”

It was a long and tough road to the final round of the Golden Lion Pennant High School Baseball Tournament (co-sponsored by Dong-A Ilbo and the Korea Baseball Association). The score was reversed no less than three times, then tied right up to the end, but Deoksu IT High School emerged as the final victor in this historic match-up.

It was a fierce and bloody fight that escalated to a 9-9 tie in the eighth inning; the winner would be determined in the top of the ninth.

With two outs and a runner on second, Deoksu’s top batter Sohn Jeong-hun slugged a homer into the right-side stands. The cheering squad—over 1,000 in number—immediately rose to their feet with their hands in the air. They were the deciding two runs.

Players in the opposing Cheon-an Buk-il High team were at a loss for words, while Sohn raised his fist with a triumphant victory cry.

In the semifinal round held on July 1 at Dongdaemun Stadium, Deoksu IT High beat last year’s runner-up Cheon-an Buk-il High 12 to 9 in a dramatic battle of reversals, and advanced to the finals of the Golden Lion Pennant tournament for the first time in eight years.

On the other hand, Cheon-an Buk-il High, home of the best pitching in high school baseball, had to swallow their tears as they saw their ambitions struck down by the “bee swarm baseball” of Deoksu IT High once again, after submitting to the same fate during the semifinals of this year’s Presidential Cup.

Spectators were glued to their seats every minute of the game as the two teams wrestled for the lead from start to finish.

Deoksu scored the first run, but Cheon-an came back in the bottom of the first: with just one out and the bases loaded, Yu Won-sang’s timely hit, plus a walk and a sacrifice fly, easily overturned the score to 3-1.

In the fifth inning, Deoksu, trailing 2-3, hit back with a tide-turning two-run homerun by Hyeon Seung-min to push the score to 5-3. Then, Cheon-an Buk-il scored another four runs in the sixth, from 4-5 to 8-5, with a combination of offensive moves including Jang Ji-hun’s two-run homer.

Even without a big-name star in its lineup, Deoksu prepared to turn the tables yet again in the seventh, armed with mobility, teamwork, and pure spirit.

Trailing 5-8 in the top of the seventh, Seong Ho-in’s homerun brought the score up to 7-8. Deoksu gave up a run in the bottom of the seventh, but Hwang In-seok’s two-run hit in a two-out bases-loaded situation in the eighth tied the game at 9-9.

Deoksu IT High has made consistently strong showings in the Golden Lion Pennent race, advancing to the finals four years in a row from 1993 to 1996. It will now battle for the champion’s spot for the third time in the tournament’s history.

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