Mound doesn't worry' 154km 1R rookie 2G consecutive multi-innings scoreless → 10 aqos per day deleted 1 inning! KT wraps up 1 win and 2 losses against Melbourne

*This content was translated by AI.

KT Wiz of professional baseball finished the three consecutive games against Melbourne Aces in the Australian Baseball League (ABL) with one win and two losses.

KT lost 0-4 in its third practice game against Melbourne Aces in 2026 spring camp at Ballpark in Melbourne, Australia, on the 21st.

He failed to continue his momentum to win 8-7 in the first round. KT, which was completely defeated 6-12 in the second game, also suffered defeat on the day, with its batters tied to a total of five hits. The pitchers who faced each other in the first game faced each other in the third game as well, but it was a pity that they could not score more points.

I don't think I'll have to worry about the mound again this year. Rookie Park Ji-hoon (19) increased his chances of joining the opening entry with stable pitching for two consecutive games. Park Ji-hoon is a right-hander who joined KT as the sixth overall in the first round of the 2026 KBO Rookie Draft. Sliders with two trajectories, fastballs with speeds of up to 154 kilometers per hour and high RPM (rotations per minute) of 2,500 times, were considered attractive.

It was well received from his first appearance. Park Ji-hoon played with a maximum of 150km/h fast ball in the first game, allowing one hit, one walk, and one strikeout in two innings. The slider, praised by head coach Lee Kang-chul as "the best," made Melbourne hitters spin their bats day after day. He also played multiple innings in Game 3. During the first ⅓ innings (26 pitches), he continued his momentum by allowing one walk and two strikeouts without a hit.

Commentator Yoon Hee-sang, who was in charge of the first game broadcast, said, "The slider that fell on the lower side was sharp. What looks even better is that the arm speed of the fastball and slider are very similar. "It feels almost the same, so the power of the slider is high." He said, "The pitching foam is very soft and simple, so it conveys power properly. The pitching mechanism is stable, so the possibility of development is inevitably high," he praised.

Overall, it was encouraging that foreign pitchers' conditions came up. Matt Sauer from the Los Angeles Dodgers made his first appearance in Game 3. Sauer was highly praised for his free use of various pitches such as cutters, sinkers, sliders, and splitters with fast balls up to mid-150km/h as his main weapon. In the first game, he recorded three hits (one homer) and two runs without strikeouts during two innings (27 pitches), throwing an average of 149km/h and up to 151km/h fastballs, and his condition was not bad.

Sugimoto Kouki, who joined the Asian quarter, also showed a performance in his first appearance, erasing one inning with 10 single balls. He showed off his best condition by striking out one fastball with an average speed of 147 kilometers per hour and a maximum of 148 kilometers. Sugimoto was a pitcher with a strong fastball with a maximum speed of 154km, various breaking balls such as sliders and folk balls, and was also an eye-catching pitcher for other clubs.

Among domestic pitchers, veteran right-hander Moon Yong-ik, Kim Min-soo and left-hander Jeon Yong-joo stood out. Moon Yong-ik took the mound in both Game 1 and Game 3 and recorded five hits (one home run), two walks, eight strikeouts and four runs (two earned) in a total of four innings. By gradually increasing the number of pitches with 34 pitches in the first game and 50 pitches in the second game, he finished preparing to start the exhibition game. With Ko Young-pyo and So Hyung-joon assigned to the national team at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), Moon Yong-ik is classified as a starting resource to fill their gap.

Kim Min-soo took the mound in a crisis with two outs and runners on the second and third bases in the second game and blocked a large number of runs with various breaking balls. He gave up a two-run timely hit to the first batter, but he pitched three strikeouts and no runs in two ⅓ innings afterward. KT's club analyzed that the slider's fall and cutter movement have become bigger than in previous years, making it difficult to deal with them.

Jeon Yong-joo completely erased one inning every time he took the mound, making manager Lee Kang-chul satisfied. In the first game, he struck out two against the lower batting line and finished the inning with 10 balls. In the second game, he showed an impressive performance with one strikeout and one perfect inning against the opponent's clean-up.

The batting lineup is also gradually increasing its hitting sense. With rookies and backup players mainly playing, he was silent with six hits in the second game and five hits in the third game after 14 hits in the first game. Sam Hilliard, the most highly anticipated foreign hitter, played only the first game and made one hit and three RBIs in two at-bats to announce his good condition.

KT will return from Australia on Feb. 24 and leave for Okinawa, Japan on Feb. 25. The Okinawa camp will be centered on actual games, and it plans to play practice games with the Korean national team of the WBC, the LG Twins, the Hanwha Eagles, the KIA Tigers, and the Samsung Lions.

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*This content was translated by AI.