Rookie Kim Min-joon of 'SSG Veniziano 4 Runs Poor' sheds regret, KIA Aller pitched 3 innings without allowing 5K runs

*This content was translated by AI.

SSG Landers' new foreign player Anthony Benigniano (29) left a regret in his first appearance. Instead, rookie pitcher Kim Min-joon (20) left a deep impression on his performance.

SSG lost 4-9 to the KIA Tigers in the opening game of the 2026 KBO exhibition game at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on the 12th.

SSG was lined up with Park Sung-han (striker), Guillermo Herredia (lefty), Choi Jung (third baseman), Kim Jae-hwan (designated hitter), Ko Myung-joon (first baseman), Han Yu-sum (right fielder), Kim Jihoon Choi (middle fielder), Cho Hyung-woo (catcher), and Jung Joon-jae (second baseman), and Beniziano took the mound as the starting player.

KIA faced off with Yoon Do-hyun (second baseman), Kim Ho-ryeong (middle fielder), Herald Castro (left fielder), Na Sung-bum (right fielder), Kim Sun-bin (designated hitter), Oh Sun-woo (first baseman), Han Jun-su (catcher), Park Min (third baseman), and Jung Hyun-chang (striker). The starting pitcher is Adam Oler.

Attention was drawn to SSG starter Beniziano. SSG, which recruited Drew Berhagen after the departure of Drew Anderson (Detroit), who was active last year, terminated the contract because it did not meet the criteria in the medical check, and eventually signed Beniziano in a hurry.

Beniziano is a fireballer with a solid physique and raised expectations in camp. In a practice game in the spring camp, he pitched once and pitched two walks and two strikeouts in two innings. The maximum speed was 150.6 kilometers.

However, this day was a bummer. In the first inning, Yoon Do-hyun was hit by a fly ball to right field, but Kim Ho-ryeong hit a double to the right. Fortunately, Castro and Na Sung-beom were turned to right field and left field fly balls, respectively, to finish the first inning.

He also started in the second inning with a hit by leadoff batter Kim Sun-bin, but struck out Oh Sun-woo and induced Han Jun-su to hit a double play towards second base to end the inning. The third inning was a clean finish with three outs.

The problem was the fourth episode. Beniziano, who started by giving up a hit to Kim Ho-ryeong, turned Castro into a fly ball to center field, but later allowed a double to Na Sung-bum and a walk to Kim Sun-bin, and Oh Sun-woo also got a hit.

In the end, he handed the ball over to Yoon Tae-hyun and stepped down, but allowed a hit to the body, and even after increasing the out count by one ground ball to the third baseman, he had a hit to the right by Jung Hyun-chang, consecutive walks to Yoon Do-hyun and Kim Ho-ryeong, and a hit by Castro. In the end, Beniziano, who threw 55 pitches in three ⅓ innings, finished the pitch with five hits, one walk, one strikeout, and four runs. Yoon Tae-hyun also scored four runs.

He gave up eight runs in the fourth inning alone, completely giving up the atmosphere, but he caught up with four runs in the top of the sixth inning. Following Cho Hyung-woo's walk, Jung Joon-jae's hit, and Park Sung-han's walk, Herredia's ground ball made a shortstop error, followed by Hyun Won-hoe's sacrifice fly to left field, Kim Jae-hwan's hit, and Ko Myung-joon's sacrifice fly again.

In the sixth inning, rookie Kim Min-joon took the mound. He accompanied him from the first spring camp, and he impressed head coach Lee Sung-yong with a big distribution and pitched one scoreless inning in practice games, raising expectations with immediate power.

On this day, he struck out Yoon Do-hyun, the first batter, and grounded out Park Jae-hyun to shortstop, and was on the verge of a crisis with two outs and runners on the first and third bases after consecutive hits by Park Jung-woo and Lee Chang-jin, but he struck out Kim Seok-hwan to put out the fire himself.

In the seventh inning, he struck out Kim Kyu-sung and Park Min to end the day's pitch with three outs.

But the result was a 4-9 defeat. He lost ground to the strength of the KIA mound. Aller threw 40 pitches in three innings, striking out five and pitching perfectly. Yang Hyun-jong, who took the mound, was shaken by four hits, three outs and four runs (three earned runs) in two ⅓ innings, but Kim Si-hoon (1 ⅔ inning), Kim Bum-soo, and Jung Hae-young (one inning) continued to pitch scoreless and overwhelmed the SSG lineup.

In the KIA lineup, new foreign hitter Castro had one hit and two RBIs, and Kim Ho-ryeong had two hits and one walk in two at-bats, raising expectations.

In SSG, Choi Jung, Kim Jae-hwan, and Han Yu-sum reported hits side by side in the central lineup.

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*This content was translated by AI.