[Anchor]

In the second game of the professional baseball semi-playoffs, KIA relied on a surging offense that racked up five runs in the first inning alone to defeat LG for their second consecutive win, leaving them just one victory away from advancing to the playoffs.

Reporter Jeon Yeongmin has the story.

[Reporter]

KIA's batting lineup was blazing hot right from the first inning.

Following a hit by number two batter Park Jae-hyun and a walk by Kim Do-young, five consecutive batters from cleanup hitter Castro to number eight hitter Ha Ju-suk pounded out hits. This tied the record for the most hits and consecutive times reaching base in a single inning in semi-playoff history, producing a massive five runs.

Backed by fiery run support from the opening inning, KIA starting pitcher Oller shut down the LG lineup through the sixth inning, allowing two runs on six hits with eight strikeouts.

Jeon Sang-hyun took the mound in the eighth inning with two outs and runners on first and second while leading 6-3. After striking out Lee Jae-won to put out the fire, he cleanly retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up a save for the second straight day.

With a 6-3 victory, KIA secured its second straight win and stands just one victory away from reaching the playoffs.

[Lee Bum-ho / KIA Manager: Scoring plenty of runs early on in the batting department seems to be what allowed us to win today's game. We will do our absolute best in the third game as well to make it a winning game.]

LG made a bold gamble by inserting Lee Jae-won in place of the slumping Hong Chang-ki and deploying Park Hae-min and Song Chan-eui at the top of the batting order, but they failed to break their offensive silence and now find themselves on the brink of elimination.

KIA has announced Shirakawa, while LG, backed into a corner, has named Carrasco as the starting pitcher for Game 3.

(Video by Yang Doo-won | Video Editing by Park Jung-sam)