(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Bears nips Dinos in Korean Series-opener
Nederlands
 SEOUL (South Korea) -
Reigning champion Doosan Bears opened the best-of-seven 34th edition of the Korean Series on Saturday-evening (October 29) with an 1-0 victory in eleven innings against NC Dinos.
The first Korean Series was played in 1982, the year when professional baseball was introduced in the Asian country.
Back then, the big Jamsil Stadium also was opened for the World Championship, which then was held in South Korean capital Seoul.
The National Team of the Netherlands then was one of the participating countries.
Since then, Jamsil Stadium has been the site of several big international events.
There was no Series in 1985.
Last year, Doosan Bears won the championship by winning the Series 4-1 against Samsung Lions, which had captured the title in the previous four years (2011-2014).
In 2013 and 2014, Dutch pitcher Rick van den Hurk played for the team.
This season, Doosan was the first team in history to have four 15-game winners in the regular season.
The pitching-staff was led by Dustin Nippert, who won 22 games, followed by Michael Bowden (18), Hui-kwan Yu and Won-jun Jang (both 15).
In the 10-team KBO League, Doosan Bears won the regular season with a 93-50 record, while NC Dinos finished in second place with a 83-58 record.
Since last year, the top-5 teams qualify for the postseason.
Before that, the four best teams advanced to the postseason.
In the new set-up, the regular season-winner automatically qualifies for the Korean Series.
The teams finishing in fourth and fifth place will play a Wild Card Series with the winner meeting the team that finished in third place in the Semi Play-Off.
The winner of that series continues to the Play-Off and meets the number 2 team to decide who will be the second finalist.
In the Wild Card Series, LG Twins (4th place) won against Kia Tigers (5th place), then also won the Semi-Final against Nexen Heroes (3rd place).
In the Play-Off, the Twins lost its best-of-five (3-1) against NC Dinos, which therefore qualified for the first time for the Korean Series.
(October 29)
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The Bears got on base in each of the first nine innings, but were unable to score.
They got the bases loaded in the eighth with two outs, but three runners were left behind.