DOU-LIOU STADIUM. Korea entered the win column at the XXVI 18U Baseball World Cup with a 4-0 shutout over Colombia on Monday afternoon. At Dou-Liou Stadium they took the lead in the first, scored three more runs in the third and then relied on their pitching to seal the deal. Colombia dropped to 0-2.
Following their tough loss against Cuba on Sunday, Korea made sure to do better against Colombia. Tae Jin Kim walked to lead off the bottom of the first, stole second and advanced to third on a sac bunt. An error on Woo Jun Sim’s ball into left field brought him home. Two frames later Korea tagged on three more runs on a wild pitch, a groundout and a single by Yeong Jo.
Key to the game was a strong pitching performance. Starter Se Woong Park struck out ten batters in seven scoreless one-hit innings. Four relievers issued just four walks in the remainder of the game to close out the one-hitter.
Carlos Martinez had Colombia’s lone hit of the game with two outs in the seventh. However he tried to stretch his single into a double and was thrown out at second. They had a couple more base runners and even loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, but a pop-out and a ground-out closed it out.
Milton Meza took the loss, surrendering four runs (3 ER) on two hits and five walks in 2 2/3 innings. Colombia had its own stellar outing on the mound, as reliever Wilmar Pineda threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
Colombia is going to face Cuba on Tuesday morning and Italy in the evening, trying to rebound from their 0-2 start into the game. Korea has a pair of tough assignments with USA in the morning and Australia in the evening.
