[Baseball] 2 High School Alumni Face Off in U.S.

Paek Cha-seung of the San Diego Padres and Choo Shin-soo of the Cleveland Indians smiled at each other as they faced off.

Both players had attended Busan High School in Korea. Three Gwangju Jeil High School alumni – Seo Jae-weong, Choi Hee-seop and Kim Byung-hyun – were the only other Koreans to face each other in the U.S. Major League Baseball.

Paek recorded a quality start but got a no decision in the 8-3 home win, as his Padres scored five runs in the 10th to pull out the victory.

Choo hit safely in his third straight game with an RBI double.

Paek allowed three runs on two hits over seven innings. He was replaced before the eighth with the scored tied, 3-3.

He threw 68 strikes out of 110 pitches, and his fastball was timed as high as at 151 kph. He lowered his earned-run average from 5.01 to 4.84.

Designated hitter Choo batted fifth in the lineup. In the first, he hit a double off of his Busan High buddy Paek that drove in a run. Going one for four, Choo’s batting average dipped to 0.316 from 0.324.

Kevin Kouzmanoff’s grand slam in the top of the 10th helped seal the win for San Diego.

creating@donga.com