(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by WBSC)
   South Korea wins Premier12-Gold with big shutout-win vs. USA!
Nederlands
 TOKYO (Japan) -
South Korea won convincinly vs. the USA on Saturday-evening (November 21) with an 8-0 shutout to win the Gold Medal of the Premier12 and become the first Global Champion of this inaugural tournament in which the twelve best baseball-countries of the world participated.
With the win, South Korea defeated both the number one (Japan) as the number two (USA) on the world ranking list in the last three days.
South Korea (nr. 8 on the world ranking list) outhit the USA (nr. 2 on the list) 13-5, including three basehits by Keun-Woo Jeong and Hyun-Soo Kim, while Byung-Ho Park hit a 3-run homerun.
Hyun-Soo Kim was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
More Awards
With the winning of the tournament, South Korea earned one million dollar.
The American squad, which didn't really dominate throughout the tournament, earned 600,000 dollar for winning the Silver Medal.
The two teams also faced each other in the final game of the preliminary round in Pool B.
The USA then won 3-2 in 10 innings.
The winning run came after a disputable call in the top of the 10th inning when a runner was ruled safe after stealing second base.
He went on to score the winning run.
The USA reached the final by winning 6-1 vs. Mexico in the Semi-Final.
South Korea got into the final after the stunning come-from-behind win against Japan in its Semi-Final.
In the final, Dutch scorer Linda Steijger was the Lead Official Scorer and was joined by Pablo Carpio (Spain) and Jennie Moloney (Australia).
More on this assignment
(November 21)
South Korea opened the score right away in the top of the first inning off of righthander Zack Segovia, who encountered some problems in this at bat.
He gave up a lead-off single to Keun-Woo Jeong, who then stole second base and scored on a following double by Yong-Kyu Lee.
The latter advanced on a grounder, but then Segovia walked Dae-Ho Lee and hit Byung-Ho Park with a pitch to load the bases.
The USA avoided more difficulties when the inning ended with a double play.
Segovia was the starting and winning pitcher against Mexico in the prelimary round and against the Netherlands Kingdom Team in the Quarter Final.
Kwang-Hyun Kim started for South Korea.
He also was the starter in the first game of the tournament in Sapporo vs. Japan.
Kim then pitched only 2 2/3 inning and was the losing pitcher, as Japan won 5-0.
He then was the starting pitcher against the USA in the final game of the preliminary round and had a no-decision.
The USA won that game 3-2 in 10 innings.
Kim got a good start tonight.
With one out in the first inning, he gave up a single to Elliot Soto, but he was forced out, then a strikeout ended the at bat.
In the second inning, Zack Segovia gave up a lead-off single to Jae-Gyun Hwang.
This time, he held the Koreans scoreless, however, Hwang stranded on third base.
...South Korea wins the first Premier12...
(© Photo: WBSC) |
But that changed again in the third.
Segovia walked lead-off hitter Yong-Kyu Lee, who then scored all the way from first base on a double by Hyun-Soo Kim.
That led to a pitching change, as Brooks Pounders took over.
He faced powerhitters Dae-Ho Lee and Byung-Ho Park, but the first lined out and the second struckout.
But he followed with a walk for Ah-Seop Son, who had a great at bat and fouled off several pitches.
Pounders then closed with another strikeout, but that could have turned otherwise.
On the previous pitch, batter Jae-Gyun Hwang popped the ball up and catcher Dan Rohlfing and first baseman Dan Black stood besides each other near the first base foul-line.
But there was a miscommunication, as the ball dropped between, then jumped out to foul territory.
Kwang-Hyun Kim had retired the side in the second inning, then eliminated the first two batters in the third.
But after having retired six batters in a row since the first inning, the lefthander gave up singles to Jacob May and Elliot Soto (his second).
However, they stranded, as Kim closed with his third strikeout.
South Korea struck again in the fourth and rallied for five runs!
With one out, the Asians got the bases loaded.
Jae-Ho Kim then doubled down the leftfield-line, then Keun-Woo Jeong lined up the middle.
Short stop Elliot Soto made a great stop, avoiding a run, but had no play.
With runners on first and third base, Yong-Kyu Lee was hit by a pitch that loaded the bases.
Hereafter, Hyun-Soo Kim delivered a 2-run double (his second double in the game) to raise the lead to 4-0.
Pounders followed by striking out Dae-Ho Lee, but then gave up a towering homerun to Byung-Ho Park that made it a 7-0 score.
When next batter Ah-Seop Son walked, Pounders was finally relieved and lefthander Anthony Vazquez took over.
A force play ended the inning, but South Korea had now taken a commanding lead.
In the bottom of the fourth, the USA had something in the making, but failed to do so.
Matt McBride led off with a double, then Tyler Pastornicky hit the ball into the ground in front of home plate, which then jumped into the air.
Pitcher Kwang-Hyun Kim picked up the ball and threw it to first baseman Byung-Ho Park, but instead hit Pastornicky on his back, that scored McBride.
However, Pastornicky was running inside the foul-line and was correctly ruled out for interference.
That meant that McBride was send back to second base.
Two groundouts ended the inning and left the Americans scoreless.
After both teams were retired in order in the fifth, South Korea threatened to add more runs in the top of the sixth.
With one out, Hyun-Soo Kim singled, then Dae-Ho Lee was hit by a pitch and Byung-Ho Park walked.
John Church then became the new pitcher.
He saw Byung-Hun Min go after his first delivery, but that ended up into a pop-fly into rightfield.
Kim initially took off from third base, had no chance to score, tried to return, but was then eliminated in a rundown to complete a double play, that ended the inning.
In the sixth, off of new pitcher Chang-Min Lim, the USA got a baserunner with two outs, but he stranded.
In the seventh, Woo-Chan Cha became the third pitcher for Korea and then Dan Black led off with a single.
But a pop-foul followed, then Cha struckout the next two batters.
After being retired in order in the seventh, South Korea got its first two batters on base in the eighth off of Dana Eveland, the fifth American pitcher in the game.
He gave up back-to-back singles to Keun-Woo Jeong and Yong-Kyu Lee that put runners on first and third base.
Hereafter, Hyun-Soo Kim flied out to leftfield.
Jeong took off to score, but was tagged out on the plate in a close play that completed a double play.
Cody Satterwhite then took over the pitching and ended the at bat with a strikeout.
The USA stranded another runner on first base in the bottom of the eighth, then South Korea added to its score in the top of the ninth off of new pitcher Casey Coleman.
He began with a strikeout, but then gave up a single to Byung-Hun Min and walked pinch-hitter Jae-Won Oh.
A strikeout for pinch-hitter Sung-Bum Na followed, but then the bases got loaded when Jae-Ho Kim singled.
A following walk for Keun-Woo Jeong then brought in the eighth Korean run, as well as the eighth American pitcher.
Lefthander Joey Denato took over with the bases loaded, but closed with a strikeout.
| Individual Awards Premier12 |
| Award | Winner | Team |
| Best Hitter | Matt McBride | USA |
| Best Pitcher (ERA) | Shohei Otani | Japan |
| Best Pitcher (W-L) | Chris Leroux | Canada |
| Most Runs Batted In | Sho Nakata | Japan |
| Most Homeruns | Chih-Sheng Lin | Chinese Taipei |
| Most Stolen Bases | Randolph Oduber | Kingdom Team Netherlands |
| Most Runs Scored | Tyler O'Neill | Canada |
| Outstanding Defensive Player | Hayato Sakamoto | Japan |
| Most Valuable Player | Hyun-Soo Kim | South Korea |
| . |
| All-World Team Premier12 |
| Position | Winner | Team |
| Starting Pitcher | Shohei Otani | Japan |
| Relief Pitcher | Dustin Molleken | Canada |
| Catcher | Humberto Sosa | Mexico |
| First Base | Sho Nakata | Japan |
| Second Base | Adam Frazier | USA |
| Third Base | Jae-Gyun Hwang | South Korea |
| Short Stop | Carlton Daal | Kingdom Team Netherlands |
| Outfield | Matt McMride
Randolph Oduber
Hyun-Soo Kim | USA
Kingdom Team Netherlands
Zuid-Korea |
| Designated Hitter | Dae-Ho Lee | South Korea |
|
