Korea little less than perfect, outscore China

World No. 6 Korea beat No. 24 China, 7-2, in the first WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2024 Super Round game on Thursday.

Korea's starter, Hyunseok Choi, left China no chance. He took a perfect game into the seventh, striking out nine. His lineup recorded nine singles against five Chinese pitchers, putting runners in scoring position with an aggressive use of the running game.

Three inning-ending double plays kept China in the game in the early innings.

Catcher Siang Kim singled off Chinese starter Yu Yun Lin with one out in the bottom of the second to become the first runner of the game. He advanced to second on a passed ball.

Lin walked Sungmin Choi on four pitches, but needed just one more to get out of the inning as he got Donhyun Kim to ground into a double play.

Korea took the lead in the bottom of the third. Hojung Song led off with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. He scored when Hyunjong Kim singled on Lin's first offering.

Hyunjong Kim stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error. After he walked Anseok Jeong, China made a trip to the mound to visit him.

Daeseon Jeong looked at two balls and delivered an RBI single to shallow centre field to make it 2-0 and send Lin to the showers.

China handed the ball to Jian Yi with runners at the corners. With his fourth pitch, the right-hander got Donghyun Kim to line into an inning-ending double play.

Yi hit the first batter of the bottom of the fourth, walked the second and left for Jie Zhou. Doohyun Kim bunted the runners to third and second, but another double play got China out of the inning. Hojung Song lined out to shortstop and Qiroi Wu picked Siang Kim away from the third base bag.

Korea opened the score in the bottom of the fifth. Zhou allowed a one-out walk to Hyunjong Kim, who stole second and scored on Anseok Jeong's RBI single.

Anseok Jeong stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored when Daeseon Jeong got his second hit of the day. China gave the ball to Huachen Fu, their fourth pitcher.

The script went unchanged and Daeseon Jeong stole second. He advanced to third on the second out and scored as Siang Kim also collected his second hit of the game.

Fu walked the next batter, the allowed Doohyun Kim an RBI single that extended Korea's lead to 6-0

Korea added the seventh run on Shutong Ding in the bottom of the sixth.

Xudong Zhu broke Choi's perfect game as he led off the top of the seventh bunting for the hit. Korea called Baeksan Kim from the bullpen.

The right-hander recorded the first out on a fly to centre and the second on strikes, then allowed a runner with a throwing error and loaded the bases with a walk. Yuyang Li put China on the scoreboard with a two-RBI single by Yuyang Li.

With runners at the corners Korea called Jaeyoung Song fron the bullpen and the left-hander used five pitches to record the last out of the game on strikes.

Korea (2-1) will face No. 10 Puerto Rico at 19:00 (local time) on Day 2 of the Super Round. China (0-3) will face No. 5 Venezuela also at 19:00.