09/09/2023 2 Minute Read

Korea beat Netherlands, will play USA for bronze

Korea got ahead with the small ball and held the lead, relying on perfect defence to support four pitchers. Their win created a three-way tie with Puerto Rico and the US at 2-3.

World No. 4 Korea beat No. 7 Netherlands, 3-1, to advance to the bronze medal game.
Four Korean pitchers limited the Dutch to one run. Korea got ahead on a perfectly executed squeeze play and relied on their defence to support four pitchers. Reliever Geonwoo Park earned the win, pitching two innings. Mireu Jeon got the final out and the save.

Korea took an early lead against Maxwell Cornelissen. Anseok Jeon singled to lead off the bottom of the first, and Choongheon Lee brought him to third with a double. With one out, shortstop Jihwan Park dropped a perfect bunt and squeezed the go-ahead run in. Jeon advanced to third on the play and scored on a groundout.

Korea made it 3-0 in the bottom of the third. Cornelissen allowed a one-out walk to Tongkeon Park, who advanced on a groundout. Hyunmin Cho got to the Dutch left-hander with an RBI double.

The Dutch bullpen, Noah Arends and Just Van den Ouweelen, limited Korea to one hit over the following three innings.

The Netherlands cut the gap against Korean right-hander Sunyeop Yook in the top of the fourth. Keyon Ashby led off with a single. Keegan Pieternella followed with a base hit through the right side, bringing him to third. Pieternella overran the first base bag and became the first out when right fielder Junwoon Yeon delivered a perfect relay to Jihwan Park, and the shortstop got Ashby with a perfect throw to first.

The Dutch scored on Terrance Heemskerk's RBI single to right field. Korea handed the ball to Geonwoo Park, who got out of the inning with a fly out.

Park walked Miquel Willem with one out in the top of the seventh. Willem got into scoring position with two outs, and Korea gave the call to left-hander Mireu Jeon to face left-hander Jamie Beerman.

The Dutch first baseman hit a hard chopper to the mound that Jeon could only touch. Jihwan Park backed him up and got the final out of the game with the throw to first.

The Team Quality Balance (TQB) broke the threw-way tie between the United States, Korea and Puerto Rico. The US finished third, Korea fourth and Puerto Rico fifth. Korea and the United States will play for bronze on Sunday, 10 September. The US will be the home team. The Netherlands placed sixth.