South Korea’s baseball team has advanced to the final at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games. Ryu Jung-il’s team defeated Japan 2-0 on Friday afternoon at the Baseball and Softball Sports Center 1 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, China, in the first game of the tournament’s Super Round behind a six-inning no-hitter from starter Park Se-woong (Lotte Giants) and a two-RBI double from Noh Si-hwan (Hanwha Eagles).South Korea, which came into the Super Round with one loss in the group stage to No. 1-ranked Chinese Taipei, finished with a combined record of 1-1.Japan, who also suffered a shock loss to China in the group stage, dropped to 2-1.In the other Super Round game, Taiwan defeated Chinese Taipei 4-1 to move to 2 wins (undefeated), while China remained at 1 win and 1 loss. Korea can advance to the final with 2 wins and 1 loss if it defeats Chinese Taipei at 1 p.m. on July 7 and face Taiwan in the best-of-three series. After Kwak Bin (Doosan Bears)’s unexpected back strain disrupted the starting pitching staff, Korea sent veteran right-hander Park Se-woong (Lotte Giants) to start against Japan .Park struck out nine and held Japan to two hits, two walks and zero runs to earn the win. Park faced immediate trouble in the first inning when he gave up a leadoff walk to Hiroki Nakagawa and stole second base. Shoji Kitamura followed with a single to left, putting runners on first and third, but Park got Tatsuhiko Sato to fly out to center field and Masashi Maruyama to ground out to end the inning. After the first inning, Park struck out eight over the next five innings, effectively shutting down the Japanese bats.In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Korean offense, which had given up five hits to Japan’s right-hander Shuichiro Kyo, had runners on first and third with no outs when Choi Ji-hoon (SSG Landers) led off with a bunt single and Yoon Dong-hee (Lotte Giants) followed with a single to right-center. Korea wasted the opportunity when Moon’s well-hit line drive was picked up by pitcher Gano and thrown away instead of hitting the ground. Korea broke the 0-0 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning. Leadoff hitter Kim Hye-sung (Kiwoom Heroes) led off with a single up the middle and used his quick feet to reach second base .Choi Ji-hoon’s sacrifice bunt and Yoon Dong-hee’s walk put runners on first and third, and Noh Si-hwan hit a huge sacrifice fly to left field to send Kim home .Korea added a run in the bottom of the eighth inning. After a leadoff walk by Kim Hye-sung and a bunt single by Choi Ji-hoon, No. 4 hitter Noh Si-hwan hit a clean single to left field .Ryu Jung-il replaced Park Se-woong with Choi Ji-min (KIA Tigers) in the seventh inning to lock down the game .Choi Ji-min cooked Motoki Mukoyama at shortstop with one out to keep the scoreless streak alive, and in the eighth, Park Young-hyun (KT WIZ) hit a two-out double to left field but got Kazuya Shimokawa to fly out to center field to end the threat. Park Young-hyun, who took the mound in the ninth inning in place of struggling closer Ko Woo-seok (LG), faced the threat of tying the game with runners on first and second after shortstop Kim Joo-won (NC Dinos) made a throwing error and allowed a hit. However, he induced the next batter to ground out to second base to get a breather and then induced a double play to end the game with runners on first and third. Japan, which is comprised entirely of unemployed baseball players, was blanked for the second straight game 안전놀이터 with a “record-breaking” five-hit performance against South Korea, following a two-hit performance against China.