South Korea’s 12 -year -old (U12) baseball team advanced to the super round.
The national team led by Kang Gye-yeon, director of Dogok Elementary School in Seoul, defeated the United States 6-2 in the 4th round of Group B of the 2025 World Baseball Soft Ball Federation (WBSC) World Youth Baseball Championship (U12) in Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan. In the group stage four consecutive wins, the national team secured the first place regardless of the remaining results, and decided to enter the super round early.
In the match, Kwon Yun -seo (Daegu Oksancho) made a starting pitcher with two runs in two innings and two strikeouts. Lee Jae -seung (Daegu Chilsungcho), who inherited the mound, kept the team’s victory by perfectly blocking the US line with a 3 innings in three innings. In the batting line, Hong Sung -hyun (Seoul Go Myungcho) was very active with three at -bats and two hits and two points, and Ha Jung -woo (Chungbuk Seokgyo -cho) also scored a win with two at -bats and one hit and one walk.
The tournament participates in a total of 12 countries, and Korea is in Group B along with South Africa, Dominican Republic, the United States, the Czech Republic, and Panama. The top three teams in each qualifying group will enter the super round, and the fourth and sixth teams will participate in the rankings before the ranking decision. Afterwards, the final ranking will be made based on the results of the super round. The national team previously won 17-0 and four cold games in South Africa, and the Dominica Republic defeated 8-3. Subsequently, the Czech Republic won the team’s no-hit no-run record and won the 14-0 and 5 cold game victory.
The national team will play the final match against Panama at 5:30 pm on the 29th (time due to local weather conditions) at the Asia-Pacific International Baseball Training Center B. The match is broadcast live on SPOTV Prime.
By Kim Yang -hee, reporter whizzer4@hani.co.kr