"Wow!" ML defense came out of high school baseball! After the captain's fighting spirit, 2:10 → 5:10 → 6:12 The national competition final in nine years burned down 'without regret'

*This content was translated by AI.

High school baseball produced a major league (ML) level defense that any baseball fans who have not watched must watch at least the highlight video. Captain Park Min-joon (18) of Yatap High School heated up the final stage of the national competition, which was held for the first time in nine years.

Yatapo lost 6-12 to Deoksu in the final of the 2026 Shinsegae E-Mart Cup National High School Baseball Tournament at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 12th.

With this, Yatago added another runner-up. Prior to this competition, the Yatap High School baseball team, which was founded in 1997, reached the final of the national championship four times, including the 2004 Golden Lion Flag National High School Baseball Tournament, 2011 presidential cup, 2013 Cheongryonggi, and 2017 Bonghwanggi. The only victory was Bonghwangdaegi in 2017, and he has not won the eighth round since then.

No amateur baseball official expected Yatapo to reach the final this tournament. The biggest reason was that the pitching staff weakened due to the already thin player base. Second-year pitchers were unable to play due to the six-month ban due to surgery and transfer. There were only three third-year pitchers available: right-handed one-two punch Park Si-hoo (18), Lee Won-young (18), and left-handed Cho Yeon-hoo (18).

Ahead of the final match, first baseman Jung Joon-ho (18) and first-year Park Han-yul (16) who had pitching experience in middle school were on standby because Park Si-hoo could not be used as a limit on the number of pitches.

I didn't even get lucky in a difficult situation. 18 minutes were delayed due to an error in the automatic pitching decision system (ABS) ahead of the start of the game. In the meantime, the shoulder of the starting member Cho Yeon-hoo cooled down and warmed up again, and there were bad news that broke the rhythm. In the end, Cho Yeon-hoo gave up a full base to Um Joon-sang with no outs in the first inning, and was replaced early in the second inning. On top of that, he was dragged to 1:6, allowing an additional two runs.

However, Captain Park Min-joon of Yatap High School reversed the atmosphere of the game with a fantastic defense. With two outs and runners on first and second bases, Lee Kun-hoo's ball headed to the central fence. Park Min-joon, who was a little forward, ended the inning by snatching a ball over his head with a sliding catch. It was a defense in which all the spectators and broadcasters showed admiration.

Park Min-joon, who met with reporters after the game, said, "I aggressively stopped the start thinking that all the runners came in when the ball hit the bat. I thought I could catch it while running, but I flew farther than I thought and said, "I don't know," and I was caught." He said, "I wanted to instill a message that I should do it until the end as a captain, but I was proud and happy. I think it's the most memorable defense in my baseball life," he added.

Starting with this defense, Yatago was on fire again. Even if he allowed four additional runs in the fourth inning to reach 2-10, the momentum of the dugout did not die. In the bottom of the fifth inning, leadoff hitter Park Yoo-hwan made a hit to the middle and Kim Joo-hyuk made a hit to the left to first and second bases with no outs. In the process of attempting a double steal, he made up for one point by calling the opponent's throwing error. Here, Park Min-joon and Sun Do-heon's consecutive timely hits exploded and chased to 5-10.

In the end, Deoksu High School tried to beat the momentum by putting Um Jun-sang, who was in the shortstop position, on the mound in the seventh inning. However, Yatapo sent Kim Joo-hyuk, who walked straight to third base with a ground ball, and Choi Min-young called in a left-handed hit to give him a run. Since then, they have not scored any more points, but it was a game that proved why they deserve to reach the final.

Park Min-joon said, "I accidentally scored in the beginning. After the score opened, he said, "Let's have fun and show the baseball we've been playing so far." "People said we were lucky to come up as underdogs, but I think we came this far because of our hard work as captains," he stressed.

In this competition, Yatapo advanced to the finals and exceeded its goal by defeating Semyung Computer High School (6:0), Shinil High School (5:0), Seoul Design High School (6:4), Gyeonggi Commercial High School (3:0), and Daejeon High School (3:2) in order in the competition, which aimed to reach the quarterfinals with only three pitchers. Park Min-joon said, "We worked really hard last year, but we fell to the quarterfinals. I was proud of my team because I was the runner-up this year, even though it was hard to prepare, he said. "If we go out in the blue dragon season, there will be a lot more pitchers who can come out, so I want to prepare for the weekend league and perform well again," he said.

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*This content was translated by AI.