"To the world stage"...Korean women's baseball heads to Asian Cup final

 A passionate Korean women's baseball team has traveled to Hong Kong for the Asian Cup finals.

The team, led by head coach Yang Sang-moon, departed for Hong Kong today (April 24) to compete in the third Asian Baseball Confederation (BAF) Women's Asian Cup.

"I took the helm with the responsibility of wanting to do something for women's baseball," said Yang Sang-moon, former manager of the LG Twins and Lotte Giants in the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), just before departing, "and while training with our players, I felt a different attraction from men's baseball. I was moved every time I trained." "In international competitions, you have to produce results. All of our players understand the importance of competing under the Korean flag."

South Korea, ranked 10th in the WBSC World Baseball Softball Federation (WBSC) World Rankings, is in Pool B of the tournament and will face Japan (No. 1) on Saturday, qualifier Indonesia (not ranked) on Sunday and the Philippines (No. 14) on Monday.

The top two teams in Pool B will advance to the Super Round to play the 1-2 finishers in Pool A, which includes Chinese Taipei (2nd), Hong Kong (11th), China (15th) and India (18th).

At stake in the tournament is a spot at the WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup 2024.

Asian nations earned a total of four berths, with world No. 1 Japan earning an automatic berth as the host of Group B at the Women's Baseball World Cup.

The first through third-place finishers in the Asian Cup, excluding Japan, would qualify for the Baseball World Cup.

Japan is so strong that it's virtually guaranteed that whoever finishes in the top four of the tournament will qualify for the Women's Baseball World Cup.

The 2024 Women's Baseball World Cup will be held in a unique format, with Group A (August in Thunder Bay, Canada) and Group B games (September in Miyoshi, Japan) in 2023 and the final round in Thunder Bay in the summer of 2024.

Japan and the top-ranked Asian Cup team outside of Japan will play in Miyoshi from September 13-17 against Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and France in a Baseball World Cup Group B matchup.

The third- and fourth-place teams from the Asian Cup will compete in Group A against Canada, the United States, Australia, and Mexico in Thunder Bay from August 8-18.

A total of six teams will advance to the final round of the 2024 WBSC Baseball World Cup: the first and second place finishers from Group A and Group B, plus two wild cards.

Yang Sang-moon and his players are aiming to finish second in their group, advance to the Asian Cup Super Round, and play in the main group stage of the Baseball World Cup in August or September.

In South Korean women's baseball, there are no school teams to develop elite players, nor are there any unemployed teams.

The Korean Women's Baseball Federation used tryouts to select the 20 players who will compete in the Asian Cup.

The team includes homemakers, physical education teachers, Korean-Americans, high school students, and university students, all of whom play baseball for fun.

For two months starting in March, the team gathered at Hwaseong Dream Park in Gyeonggi Province to train on weekends.

However, even during the week, the players showed enthusiasm for personal training while holding down their "day jobs.

Coach Yang Sang-moon said, "Our players have been running after their dreams. They trained with happy faces despite realistic difficulties." "Their skills have improved significantly from the first time we met. Now it's our turn to prove our international competitiveness."

Realistically, it's hard to beat the world champion Japan.

Indonesia has the edge over South Korea.

In the end, Korea and the Philippines will likely play for a ticket to the Baseball World Cup in the final game of Group B.

Coach Yang Sang-moon said, "Park Min-seong and Lee Ji-sook are our one-two punch. We will play them against the Philippines and try to win."

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines women's national baseball team hasn't played an international tournament recently. 스포츠토토

"We had a hard time analyzing their strength because we couldn't get video of their players recently," Yang said. I'm going to Hong Kong to watch the Philippines play against Indonesia and Japan to get a better understanding."

While the coach prepares for the tournament with a cool head, the players are more passionate.

Jung Geun-woo, a former second baseman who represented Korea in baseball, said, "The coach makes a practical plan, and the players are motivated, saying, 'We're going to play Japan. It's a really good picture."

Jung, who started his coaching career as a coach for the women's national baseball team, said, "When we were doing fielding drills, I got the fungo bat, and I hit it really hard. Even when the ball hit the body, the players kept running at it. I was really impressed," he said, "and I hope that our efforts will pay off and we can qualify for the Baseball World Cup at the Asian Cup."