Jeonju High School and Deoksoo High School have reached the E-Mart Bae High School Baseball Final.
On Tuesday, Jeonju defeated Gyeongbuk High School 7-1 in the semifinals of the 2024 E-Mart Bae National High School Baseball Tournament at Mokdong Baseball Stadium in Seoul to advance to the final. Deoksugo also defeated Gyeongnam High School 6-3, making the final matchup quite interesting, especially since Jeonju won without ace Jung Woo-ju.
After taking a one-run lead in the second and third innings, Jeonju scored two runs in the sixth inning, including a triple by Park Han-yeol, to secure the win. In the eighth inning, No. 4 Seo Young-joon hit the game-winning three-run shot to seal the 7-1 victory. On the mound, Jeonju’s other ace, Lee Homin, pitched eight innings of one-run, 12-strikeout ball to make his final E-Mart Bae appearance a perfect game. With 105 pitches, Lee will naturally not be able to pitch in the final.
Kyungpook National University had to settle for a single run in the ninth inning on Park Hyun-hoo’s RBI single, but despite being criticized for being weakened by the graduation of Jeon “Tani” Mir (Lotte), Kyungpook National University made it to the quarterfinals of the season, making the upcoming schedule even more exciting.
The next match between Deoksugo and Kyungnam University was quite a battle. Deoksugo came from behind to win 6-3 and reach the final for the second consecutive year.
Gyeongnam Go jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning after Eugene Jun’s RBI triple to left-center field followed by a wild pitch. The two teams went quiet after that, but Deoksugo took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when Kim Tae-hyung “Kim Tani” Kim singled to left field with two outs. In the bottom of the sixth inning, they tied the game again with a two-run single to right field by No. 7 Woo Jung-an. In the bottom of the eighth inning, with runners on first and second, Woo Jung-an again hit a double to left center field to bring both runners home. Park Min-seok followed with a single just over the second baseman’s head to bring home the runner from third. Jeong Min-seo also singled to drive in the final run.
Woo Jung-an led the way with a solo three-hit game.
On the mound, left-hander Lim Ji-sung was followed by ace Jung Hyun-woo, who pitched 5 and 2/3 innings of one-run, seven-strikeout ball to earn the win. Jeong Hyun-woo will not appear in the final game due to the pitch count limit.
However, Gyeongnam High School, which was objectively outpitched by Busan High School of Hyundai Trends, put up a strong performance to reach the top 토토사이트 four in the nation. In particular, starter Park Joo-hyung earned rave reviews from the scouting team on site after pitching 4 and 2/3 innings with six strikeouts and one run. In addition, No. 4 Kang Kang-hyun made up for it with a solo shot in the ninth inning against ace Jung Hyun-woo.
With this, the E-Mart Varsity Final will be played between Deoksugo and Jeonju. After a day off on the 21st, the two schools will move to the SSG Landers Field in Incheon for the highly anticipated final on the 22nd. Jeonju is expected to be led by ace Jung Woo-ju, while Deoksugo will be without its ace trio of Jung Hyun-woo, Kim Tae-hyung, and Lim Ji-sung, and will rely heavily on sophomores and juniors, including Yoo Hee-dong.