“The scoreboard and the ball overlapped…”
Moon Bo-kyung returned home from the Hangzhou Asian Games (AG) with a gold medal after defeating Chinese Taipei in the gold medal match at Incheon International Airport on Monday. Moon’s stellar performance in the final, both offensively and defensively, spearheaded Korea’s fourth consecutive Asian Games title.
Before leaving Hangzhou, Moon’s hitting was at its “peak. She batted .405 (15-for-37) with two home runs and nine RBIs in 10 games, and showed good feel for the game with a hit in an exhibition game against the Commerce Phoenix. However, once the Hangzhou Asian Games schedule began, Moon’s game was very different from his departure.
During the team’s Group B games against Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, and Thailand, Moon managed just four hits. Considering she had two cold-game wins, it didn’t look good, and that trend continued into the Super Round against Japan. The good news is that her batting form picked up at the end of the tournament.
After going 0-for-4 in the second game of the Super Round against China, Moon came back with a game-winning double in her final at-bat. And in the final, she really shined with the bat and ball. Moon hit a double in her first at-bat against Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yumin, a team she had been tied with in the group stage. This led to the game-winning run. 메이저사이트
With runners on first and third and the bases loaded, Kim Joo-won hit a sacrifice fly that traded one out for a run. Back-to-back singles by Kim Hyung-jun and Kim Sung-yoon put runners on second and third, and Lin Yumin was hit by a pitch to bring home Kim Hyung-jun from third to extend the lead to 2-0.
It wasn’t just the offense that shined. In the top of the fifth inning, with the score 2-0, Lin Zhihao hit a hard-hit ball toward first base, and despite not being in her primary position, Moon played a watertight defense, putting the burden on the shoulders of starter Moon Dong-ju. The result was a 2-0 victory over Chinese Taipei, with Moon scoring the game-winning run, and Korea claiming the gold medal.
When asked at Incheon International Airport on Aug. 8 if she cried after the victory, Moon said, “I almost cried. I didn’t cry. I cringed,” she said, recalling the emotional moment: “It was my first national team, my first time playing baseball, and I was in the top five. At times, the flag felt heavy, and there was a lot of pressure to do better than the regular season. I was happy that everyone worked hard and produced a good result,” he said.
Moon Bo-kyung, whose main position is third base, but who has always played first base in the national team, said, “There was no pressure. The only difference was the angle when catching the ball. Our national team players have very good shoulders, so it was a little difficult at first because the ball came hard, but I got used to it during training.”