U-18 Baseball Team Wins Asian Championship, Ha Hyun-seung Shines with 8-Strikeout Shutout

South Korea's under-18 (U-18) national baseball team has reclaimed the Asian Youth Baseball Championship title for the first time in 8 years.

Led by Manager Jung Yoon-jin (Deoksu High School), the national team defeated Japan 2-0 in the final held today (the 13th) at the Taipei Dome in Taiwan, propelled by the brilliant pitching performance of ace Ha Hyun-seung (Busan High School), who pitched a 7-inning shutout while racking up 8 strikeouts.

With this victory, South Korea achieved an undefeated 6-0 run—combining 3 wins in the group stage, 2 wins in the Super Round, and the victory in the final—lifting its 6th championship trophy overall and its first in 8 years since 2018.

South Korea surpassed Japan (5 titles) to become the country with the most championships in this tournament.

Ha Hyun-seung, who throws fastballs hovering around 150 km/h alongside a razor-sharp slider, previously drew major attention after turning down a 3 million dollar contract offer from the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB) to register for the KBO League 2027 rookie draft scheduled for the 21st.

He is widely expected to be selected as the overall number one pick in this draft.

Ha previously spearheaded a 2-0 victory in the first group stage match against Taiwan with a fantastic pitching performance, allowing just 2 hits and striking out an astonishing 12 batters across 5.2 innings.

Following that, in the first Super Round match against Japan, he stepped up as a relief pitcher and closed out a 3-2 come-from-behind victory with 3 perfect innings featuring 5 strikeouts.

Returning as the starter against Japan in the final just two days later, Ha shut down the Japanese lineup without allowing a single run despite giving up 1 hit and 2 walks, securing his 3rd win of the tournament and instantly leaping to stardom as South Korea's next-generation ace.

South Korea grabbed the winning run in the 2nd inning when Jang Min-je (Choongam High School) hit a triple to right-field, got caught in a rundown between first and third base, and safely crossed home plate following a throwing error by the Japanese catcher.

In the 5th inning, with runners on second and third with one out following 2 hits and an error, Cho Hee-sung (Yushin High School) unleashed an RBI single to left-center field to extend the lead to 2-0.

In a 7-inning game, two runs were more than enough for Ha Hyun-seung to secure the victory.

After giving up his only hit of the day with two outs in the 6th inning, Ha remained unshaken and struck out all three batters in the 7th, fully savoring the joy of conquering the Asian summit.

(Photo provided by Korea Baseball Softball Association, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.