Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
SPORTS
October 3, 2016
Asians in American sports w Asian Americans in world sports
Strong South Korea loses a squeaker in Little League final
LLWS CHAMPIONSHIP. South Korea’s Seum
Kwon (top photo, right) is forced out at second base
for the second out of the sixth inning by Maine-End-
well Little League’s Jude Abbadessa during the Little
League World Series (LLWS) championship baseball
game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. South Ko-
rea lost the game, 1-2. In the bottom photo, South
Korea’s Jun-ho Jeong (right) runs toward home plate
as Ryan Harlost scores the go-ahead run on a wild
pitch during the fourth inning of the LLWS champion-
ship game. (AP Photos/Gene J. Puskar)
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
A
t a time when South Korean play-
ers have made further inroads to
Major League Baseball, it seemed
like a perfect year for South Korea to also
win the Little League World Series. It
would hardly have been unexpected, since
Asian teams had won the last four straight
Little
League
championships
and
appeared in nine of the last 10. But South
Korea was edged out in the final by a
talented squad from Endwell, New York,
in the closest game since the last U.S.
victory in 2011.
The South Korean team from East Seoul
performed well in the first two rounds,
outscoring their opponents 13-0. In their
opening game against Curacao, South
Korea took advantage of the wildness of
the starting pitcher. They scored their first
two runs on two walks and two hit
batsmen, then pitchers Jun-ho Jeong and
Sang-heon Park combined for a three-hit,
15-strikeout shutout.
With the win, the team from East Seoul
next faced Canada, who had defeated
Japan, 10-4, in their first game. South
Korea faced even less resistance from the
Canadian squad, knocking their starting
pitcher out of the game in the second
inning. Left fielder Moo-sung Kim started
with a single, Won-tae Cho followed with a
two-out double, the next batter walked to
load the bases, and shortstop Jung-taek
Ru singled to drive in two runs.
Canada pulled its starting pitcher, but it
didn’t matter who faced the boys from East
Seoul. South Korea scored four more in the
fourth inning and again in the fifth, ending
the game due to Little League’s 10-run
rule. South Korea again dominated on the
hill, with three pitchers combining to hold
Canada to a single hit.
East Seoul faced its first challenge
against Panama in a hard-fought contest
in which both teams combined to put just
five runners on base in the first three in-
nings. South Korea finally broke through
in the fourth inning, pushing two runs
across without registering a single hit.
Pitcher Jaek-yeong Kim held Panama to
two hits through four innings before
walking one in the fifth. Jun-ho Jeong, who
had dominated in the first game, came on
in relief — only to walk one batter and
deliver a three-run home run to Esmith
Pineda. Unable to rally in the sixth, the
boys from East Seoul dropped their first
game of the tournament, 2-3.
Now in the consolation bracket, South
Korea faced Mexico, who didn’t give them
much competition. Seum Kwon homered
in the first and second innings, and
Jaek-yeong Kim knocked a three-run
homer in the second, while Sang-heon
Park and Won-tae Cho split time at pitcher
to hold Mexico to a single hit, striking out
13 batters.
Their next game was a rematch against
Panama in the international final, with a
much different result from the earlier
affair. Instead of a pitching duel, it became
a slugfest — at least for South Korea. The
teams traded runs in the first inning
before South Korea broke the game open in
the second inning, scoring five times on a
single and two home runs. They added
another homer in the third, and Panama
managed to score another run in the fifth,
but it was not nearly enough, and South
Korea advanced to the championship
game, 7-2.
Their opponent, Maine-Endwell Little
League, had emerged undefeated from
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their preliminary games, but they were
not unscathed. They surrendered 15 runs
in four games, the worst of the lot being a
13-10 win over Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Their starting pitcher, Ryan Harlost, gave
up eight runs in a little over three innings
of work in that game.
After Maine-Endwell’s 4-2 victory over
Goodlettsville, Tennessee in the U.S. final,
Harlost took the mound against South
Korea. Harlost’s performance against
Bowling Green was deceptive, however,
since he had also notched the win in their
opening game and a save against
Tennessee. He hadn’t given up a run in
either game, yielding just three hits in
nearly six innings of work.
South Korea faced the dominant version
of Harlost in the finals, though they had
excellent pitching of their own. Starting
pitcher Jun-ho Jeong didn’t allow a hit for
the first three innings, striking out the
side in the second and third innings. But
Maine-Endwell broke through in the
fourth inning, putting together three
straight singles to score twice.
In South Korea’s half of the fifth,
Yoo-min Lee halved the lead with a solo
home run, and Seum Kwon led off the sixth
with a single, representing the tying run.
But the team from East Seoul could not
muster another hit to drive him in, and the
U.S. squad won for the first time in five
years, 2-1.
The success of Asian teams, and South
Korea in particular — they won the title in
2014 — echoes a similar trend in the major
leagues. Korean players like Jung-ho
Kang, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Dae-ho Lee, and
Hyun-soo Kim have all made their mark in
Major League Baseball over the past three
seasons. As South Korean Little Leaguers
continue to show such promise, it’s only a
matter of time before those numbers rise
even more.