South Korea has cleared the first hurdle to reach the final with a win over archrival Japan.

South Korea defeated Japan 2-0 on Friday in the Baseball Super Round of the Hangzhou Asian Games at the Shaoxing Baseball and Softball Center in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China. South Korea improved to 1-1, while Japan fell to 2-1.

Starting pitcher Park Se-woong pitched a complete game, allowing two runs on six hits with two walks and nine strikeouts. Choi Ji-min in the seventh and Park Young-hyun in the eighth secured the win with scoreless relief.

Park got out of a jam with runners on first and third in the first inning with a foul fly and a swinging strikeout. He retired the side in order in the second and gave up a leadoff single in the third, but got back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.

In the fourth, he gave up a leadoff single but got back-to-back strikeouts and a grounder to end the inning, and in the fifth, he gave up a leadoff single but got a popup and a strikeout to end the inning. The sixth inning ended with a strikeout, a groundout, and a double play.

In the top of the sixth, the Korean offense put runners on first and third with a leadoff double by Kim Hye-sung, a sacrifice bunt by Choi Ji-hoon, and a walk to Yoon Dong-hee. Noh Si-hwan drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly to left field. Noh made it 2-0 in the eighth with an RBI single to left field.

In the ninth inning, a throwing error by the shortstop and a single to right put runners on first and second with no outs. With runners on first and third, he struck out to end the game.

Korea’s chances of advancing to the finals

South Korea will play its final game of the Super Round on Saturday at 1 p.m. against China. The top one or two finishers from the four teams in the Super Round will advance to the final and play for the gold medal. The third- and fourth-place finishers in the Super Round will play for the bronze medal.

With South Korea’s win over Japan, the number of ways they can reach the final is simple. If South Korea wins against China on June 6, they will advance to the final with a 2-1 record. If Taiwan beats both China and Japan to win three games, the math becomes simple. Taiwan will finish first and South Korea will finish second.

If China, which defeated Japan 1-0 in the group stage, also pulls off an upset against Taiwan, the math gets complicated for South Korea. It all depends on the outcome of the Taiwan-China match.

If Taiwan defeats China on the 5th night.

South Korea can clinch a spot in the final with a win over China on Saturday. South Korea will go 2-1, while China will go 1-2 if they lose to Taiwan and Korea. Regardless of the outcome of the Taiwan-Japan game on night 6, Taiwan and Korea will play for the gold medal in the final.

If Taiwan wins, it will have three wins and Japan will have three losses. If Chinese Taipei loses to Japan, Chinese Taipei will be 2-1 and Japan will be 1-2. Taiwan and Korea advance to the final by finishing first and second in the Super Round, setting up a return match with Taiwan for the gold medal.

China defeats Taiwan on night 5.

Korea is at a disadvantage due to the complexity of the game and the need to keep score. If Korea wins against China and Taiwan wins against Japan on the 6th, Korea, China, and Taiwan are tied at 2-1. Japan would have three losses.

Since Korea, China, and Taiwan are in a winner-take-all bite, the team with the best TQB (Team’s Quality Balance) will advance to the final. In this case, South Korea needs to win as many points as possible against China because they lost to Taiwan 0-4. They must win by at least 4 points.

The TQB follows the formula: (goals scored/offensive innings)-(goals allowed/defensive innings). If this is tied, the tie is broken by the minimum number of earned runs over TQB (ERA-TQB), and if this is not broken, the tie is broken by team batting average. If the batting average is the same, flip a coin.

If Korea wins against China and Taiwan loses to Japan on Day 6, Korea (2-1) and China (2-1) will advance to the finals. Taiwan (1-2) and Japan (1-2) will meet in the bronze medal game.메이저사이트

China wins 3, Korea-Japan-Taiwan ties at 1-2

China could pull off a major upset and win three games. If China beats Taiwan and South Korea loses to China on the 6th, it’s still possible to make the final. China could finish first with three wins, and South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan could tie for second with one win and two losses.

For this to happen, even if Korea loses to China on the 6th, Japan must win against Taiwan. In this case, the three teams, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, will calculate their TQB (Team’s Quality Balance), and the team with the highest TQB will face China in the final.