The NC Dinos continued their late-season push for the final spot in the standings, led by the return of Kim Joo-won and Kim Young-gyu from the Hangzhou Asian Games squad.NC pulled off a thrilling come-from-behind 11-6 victory over the Hanwha Eagles in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at NC Park in Changwon on Monday. With the win, NC moved up one spot to fourth place, tied with the SSG Landers, who had the day off .Hanwha opened the scoring i the top of the second inning with a three-run home run to left field by Lee Jin-young.NC cut the deficit to one when Kim Joo-won hit a two-run double to left-center field with runners on first and second after a pitching change.
However, Hanwha answered in the top of the third inning with runners on first and third following a Nick Williams sacrifice fly and a two-run home run by Chae Eun-sung into the outfield stands to make it 6-2.NC rallied to score two runs in the bottom of the inning on two subsequent ground balls with the bases loaded. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Hanwha starter Ricardo Sanchez went down suddenly with side pain.NC took advantage of the hastily relieved Kim Bum-soo, with Choi Jung-won leading off with a single to left and Park Gun-woo blasting a two-run homer to left field to tie the game at 6-6.With two outs and runners on first and third, the third baseman came home on a wild pitch to make it 7-6.
With one out in the bottom of the eighth, NC scored again with runners on first and third after Kim Joo-won led off with a sacrifice fly and then, following an error, Choi Jung-won hit a two-run triple and Park Gun-woo hit an RBI double to make it 11-6.Shortstop Kim Joo-won, who started immediately after returning home, went 1-for-3 with three RBIs. Catcher Park Gun-woo went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs. Reliever Kim Young-kyu, who also played on the national team with Kim Joo-won, came in after the first out in the top of the seventh inning and pitched 2 1/3 innings of one-hit, one-strikeout ball to keep Hanwha in the game. In Gwangju, the KIA Tigers came from behind to beat the Samsung Lions 3-1.Riding a three-game winning streak, sixth-ranked KIA put the final nail in the coffin by closing to within three games of fourth-place NC-SSG.
The game, which featured Lee Yi-ri and Kim Dae-woo on the mound, remained scoreless through the middle innings. Samsung took the lead in the top of the sixth inning when Kim Hyun-jun singled up the middle and moved to second on a wild pitch by KIA’s Lee Yi-ri, and pinch-hitter Ahn Joo-hyung followed with a single to left. KIA fought back and tied the game after an offensive shift .In the bottom of the sixth, with runners on second and third, Ko Jong-wook singled to right to make it 1-1.In the bottom of the eighth, with runners on second and third, Han Jun-soo singled to right-center to make it 2-1.Lee Chang-jin, who came in as a pinch hitter, then singled to left to bring in the third run and make the score 3-1.
Kia starter Lee Yi-ri didn’t get the win, but struck out 10 over 5⅔ innings, giving up one run on five hits and four walks for his third straight complete game. In Jamsil, the seventh-place Lotte Giants kept their last hopes of fall baseball alive with an 8-1 win over the LG Twins. Lotte opened the scoring in the top of the first inning with a Han Dong-hee RBI single, and after an error, Son Sung-bin followed with an RBI double to make it 4-0.LG got one run back in the bottom of the inning when rookie hitter Kim Bum-seok hit his first career solo home run. However, Lotte answered with a run in the top of the sixth on an RBI single by Yoon Dong-hee, who returned from the Asian Games, and three runs in the seventh on a solo home run by Jeon Jun-woo. Lotte, which would have been eliminated from the fall baseball tournament with a loss, 스포츠토토 took a breather.