Seoul Black Pearls won the LG Electronics Women’s Baseball Tournament in Iksan City, Korea. They won 19:11 against the Goyang Lakers in the Gold Medal Game on November 24 at Iksan Baseball Field.
Starting on September 1, the tournament lasted nearly three months. The tournament selected a unique 2 losses-out rule, in which every team had a second chance after the first defeat. 54 regular tournament games were held as well as three special games – opening game, all-star game, and Korea-Japan invitational game. Over 500 women’s baseball players from 28 teams participated in the tournament.
Eul Dong Kim, President of Women’s Baseball Association Korea (WBAK), Han Su Lee, mayor of Iksan City, and Bon Jun Koo, Vice Chairman of LG Electronics attended the Gold Medal game to support the players.
In his closing remarks, Mr. Koo said, “Over 500 players from 28 teams participated in this passionate baseball festival. I was very happy to see the players improve throughout the tournament, and it was also great to see the heightened interest by the general public.” “I hope this acts as a starting point for Korean women’s baseball to further continue its growth,” he added.
The closing ceremony for the tournament took place at Iksan Business Tourism Hotel. Gold Medalist Black Pearls team won a cash prize of 5,000,000 won and special cosmetic box prepared by LG Household & Healthcare. The Most Valuable Player of the tournament was Min Jung Lee of Seoul Black Pearls. She was awarded LG Ultra Book.
Silver Medalist and Bronze Medalist teams were each awarded with 3,000,000 won and 2,000,000 won cash prize as well as a special cosmetic box prepared by LG Household & Healthcare. The tournament also awarded additional individual awards with major house appliances such as Cinema 3D Smart TV, TROMM washing machine, and DIOS refrigerator.
This national tournament was sponsored by LG Electronics and Iksan City, and organized by WBAK and Iksan City Baseball Association. It was the first commercially sponsored women’s baseball league and was the largest women’s baseball event in terms of number of participating teams, length of the tournament, and number of tournament games. For the first time in the history of Korean women’s baseball, 20 out of 57 games, including the Gold Medal Game and the all-star game, were broadcasted via MBC Sports Plus.
