Overcoming numerous hurdles, including key player injuries, batting slumps, and a shutout loss against Japan, the South Korean national baseball team has claimed the gold medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

South Korea, led by Manager Ryu Ji-hyun, won 3-1 against Japan in the final held today (the 27th) at Toyohashi Municipal Baseball Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

With this victory, the team achieved its fifth consecutive Asian Games title, a streak that began at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.


The journey to the championship was far from smooth, even before the national team was assembled.

Star hitter Kim Do-young (KIA Tigers) fractured his nose on the 9th after being hit in the face by his own bunted ball during a game.

Kim underwent surgery, and after reviewing whether to replace him, the national team decided to play the tournament with him.

Assembled on the 14th, the national team had a hard time in their final evaluation match against Sangmu on the 17th.

The batting lineup struggled to find momentum, and the pitchers wavered.

Trailing 3-6, they scored 4 runs in the 8th-inning tiebreaker and secured a 7-6 victory thanks to Kim Gun-hee's walk-off hit.

After arriving in Nagoya, Japan, the "land of the decisive battle," on the 18th, they had to sort out their training locations from scratch.

Because the organizing committee failed to notify them of official training times and locations until the afternoon of the previous day, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) used an indoor training facility it had secured in advance for their first local adaptation training.

Uniform laundry was also an issue.

Since the service provided by the tournament organizers could not handle the daily laundry demands of players participating in games, the KBO contracted separately with a local laundry service.

The worries did not fade even after the games began.

South Korea defeated Taiwan 5-0 in their opening group-stage match on the 21st, but managed only 1 hit and scored just 1 run over 5 innings against starting pitcher Lin Yi-wei.

A stellar, hitless, scoreless pitching performance over 6 innings by starting pitcher Kwak 빈 (Doosan Bears) laid the foundation for the victory.

Although the batting lineup seemed to revive with consecutive mercy-rule victories against Hong Kong (13-0) and Thailand (18-1), they suffered a setback against Japan in the Super Round on the 25th.

The South Korean batting lineup struggled against Japanese starting pitcher Shin Higuchi.

Continuing a scoreless streak with just 4 hits over 7 innings, South Korea also hit into 3 double plays and lost 0-5.

It was their first loss to Japan at the Asian Games in 20 years, since the 2006 Doha Games, and the defeat shattered dreams of an undefeated championship.

They were placed in a position where they had to rely on other game results just to reach the final.

To make matters worse, rain became a variable during their final Super Round match against China the previous day.

The game started an hour later than scheduled.

South Korea gave up the opening run in the top of the 1st inning, but behind Choi Min-seok's (Doosan) resilient 7 innings of 1-run pitching and a counterattack by the batting lineup, they achieved a 9-2 come-from-behind victory to advance to the final.

Rain fell in Toyohashi ahead of the final on the 27th, drawing intense interest over whether the game could be held.

This was because, with no reserve day available, failure to play the final could have automatically left South Korea (2 wins, 1 loss) behind Japan (3 wins) in the Super Round standings, resulting in a silver medal.

However, just before the game, the rain miraculously eased, allowing it to start as scheduled. South Korea defeated Japan 3-1, propelled by ace Kwak 빈's 6 and 1/3 innings of 1-run pitching and Kim Do-young's game-winning hit in the "promising 8th inning."

Brushing aside concerns both on and off the field that began even before formation, Team Ryu Ji-hyun triumphed over Japan—to whom they had previously lost—on the final stage to complete the team's fifth consecutive Asian Games title.

(Photo: Yonhap News)