South Korea beats Japan 4 3 to reach Premier 12 baseball final

South Korea became the inaugural champion of the Premier 12 baseball tournament in Tokyo on Saturday. Mexico and Japan will play the third place game Saturday afternoon, before the championship game.

With two men still on board, Park Byung-ho – in contract talks with the Minnesota Twins after getting posted – crushed a 2-0 offering into the left-field seats and gave South Korea a 7-0 lead.

With its offense clicking from the start, South Korea pounded the United States 8-0 in the final at Tokyo Dome to take the championship. The United States, however, scored five in the home half of the inning. Shogo Akiyama hit another two-run homer in the seventh inning and the game ended under the 10-run mercy rule.

South Korea’s stunning ninth inning comeback landed them in the Premier 12 title game.

Elliot Soto followed with a single to right, driving in Rohlfing and advancing to third on an error. Tyler Pastornicky (Philadelphia Phillies) added to the lead with a sacrifice fly to give the United States a 6-1 lead.

While the United States beat Mexico, South Korea stunned Japan with four runs in the ninth inning to win 4-3 in the semifinals.

Low on worldwide experience and missing numerous country’s best pitchers – including Oh Seung-hwan, Yoon Suk-min and Yang Hyeon-jong – the squad went into the tournament branded as one of the weakest ever to represent Korea.

“We couldn’t afford to lose this game, but in the ninth I made mistakes with the choice of pitchers and we weren’t even able to keep the score tied – that’s my fault”, said Kokubo, whose team hadn’t really been challenged all tournament. The victor will take home the gold medal and $1 million in prize money.

“We know the Japanese team is a very good team, but we are also a high quality team and we want to show that”, Sosa, the Mexican catcher, said.

“You can tell (Park) is a risky hitter”, Team U.S. manager Willie Randolph said. Slugger Kim Hyun-soo’s batting average of 0.333 and 13 RBIs earned him the tournament MVP award.