ODDS and EVENS | An Emotional World Baseball Classic Win for South Korea to Reach Quarterfinals

The South Korea national team and its rabid supporters shared a joyful celebration at the end of a World Baseball Classic game at Tokyo Dome on Monday night, March 9.

At 10:09 PM, first baseman Bo Gyeong Moon caught Logan Wade's pop fly for the final out of the South Korea-Australia game. That triggered an outpouring of emotion on the field and in the stands.

With its 7-2 win over Australia, South Korea ended a disappointing string of first-round exits at the WBC. Reaching the tournament quarterfinals was the team's first objective, something it hadn't done since finishing runner-up to Japan in the 2009 WBC.

Indeed, a win is always nice.

But sometimes, a win alone isn't enough to achieve a goal.

Due to the results of all games involving a trio of WBC Pool C teams (South Korea, Australia, Taiwan), the Koreans needed to win Monday and have that triumph follow a certain script.

This was necessitated after the three teams all finished with 2-2 records in pool play.

According to the specifics of the tiebreaker, South Korea needed to win by at least five runs and hold Australia to two or fewer runs. (According to official WBC rules, this is known as the run quotient tiebreaker. For a team, it represents the number of runs scored divided by the number of defensive outs recorded.)

On this night, nobody said successfully fulfilling both requirements would be easy for the Koreans.

And that proved to be the case.

Late Drama in World Baseball Classic Game

Despite leading from the second inning onward, South Korea still required another run in the ninth inning.

After all, Australia's Travis Bazzana, the No 1 overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft, cut the lead to 6-2 with a one-out single in the eighth.

While attending school, I always struggled in math classes ― especially algebra and geometry ― but I never struggled to comprehend that four was less than five.

All kidding aside, South Korea faced a must-score situation in the ninth to keep alive its win-and-secure-the-tiebreaker hopes.

And that's exactly what happened.

With runners on first and third and one out, Hyun Min Ahn hit a sacrifice fly to center, and Hae Min Park scored to make it 7-2.

Korean fans shouted Ahn's name and Park's name and cheered as the team inched closer to the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals. But heartbreak was still a possibility, depending on what happened in the bottom of the ninth.

Pitching and Defense Come Through in the 9th

Byeong Hyeon Jo, South Korea's seventh pitcher of the night, fanned Jarryd Dale on a full-count fastball for the first out.

After Chris Burke walked, Rixon Wingrove lined out to right.

Australia was down to its final out, not needing a win to advance to the quarterfinals based on the tiebreak but needing to lose by no more than four runs.

Jo threw a pair of balls on his first two pitches to pinch hitter Wade, missing the strike zone with a fastball and a split-finger fastball. On his third pitch, a four-seam fastball, Wade lofted a fly ball to first baseman Moon.

After catching the ball, Moon threw his glove in the air and then ran to the pitcher's mound, where he joined his teammates to celebrate the victory.

"This is the WBC tournament, it's the highest level in the world," Moon told reporters. "We have a lot of great hitters and great pitchers, [and] we had to score a lot of runs against some great pitchers."

He added, "And what was the most difficult was to keep them from scoring more than two runs."

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Advancing to the World Baseball Classic Quarterfinals

Heading into the 20-nation tournament, this much was known: Two teams from Pool C would advance to the quarterfinals in Miami.

Reigning champion Samurai Japan (3-0) punched its ticket to Florida with a 4-3 triumph over Australia on Sunday night. Manager Hirokazu Ibata's club still has one game remaining in the Tokyo portion of the WBC on Tuesday night against the winless Czech Republic.

The other quarterfinal berth was up for grabs on Monday evening.

Moon had a splendid game for South Korea, going 3-for-5 with four RBIs. He smacked a two-run homer off Australia starter Lachlan Wells in the second inning.

The Koreans added two more runs in the third. Jahmai Jones and Jung Hoo Lee hit back-to-back doubles, with Jones scoring on Lee's hit. Moon extended the lead with another third-inning double and Lee dashed home to make it 4-0.

In the fifth, Moon was at it again, stroking an RBI single to increase the lead to 5-0.

Then Australia pulled within 5-1 on Robbie Glendinning's solo homer to center off reliever Hyeong Jun So in the bottom of the fifth.

South Korea Takes a Short-Lived 6-1 Lead

With two outs in the top of the sixth, Do Yeong Kim delivered a timely hit, a ground-ball single to right, that once again made the scoring margin five runs (6-1). So if neither team scored again, that would've secured the quarterfinal spot for Moon and his teammates.

But remember, Bazzana's clutch hit cut the lead to 6-2 in the bottom of the sixth.

Moments later, the Koreans erased the Aussies' scoring chance, completing a 6-4-3 double play to end the sixth. Delightful roars were heard from the large throng of South Korea fans sitting on the third-base side of the stadium.

After the final three innings were played, South Korea manager Ji Hyun Ryu summed up his team's successful performance.

"All the players played with a lot of tension," Ryu said in a postgame news conference. "Overall, all the effort by the players made this great contribution to winning."

A snapshot of his team's overall mood, Jo was euphoric about the meaning of Monday's game.

"On behalf of the country of Korea, I'm so grateful to clinch a berth to the next round and move to Miami," the relief pitcher told reporters. "All I can say is, I was doing my best."

Pre-Game Mindset

Australia skipper Dave Nilsson, Ryu's counterpart, was asked before Monday's game about strategies or plans for the game, knowing that the tiebreaker might determine the outcome.

"It's kind of an unusual situation," Nilsson said. "Initially just going to play the game and try to win the game, and I think let the players perform the way they have been performing.

"As the game goes on, if situations arise, I'll have to consider certain strategies, but I'm not going into the game looking to control the game. The players are the ones who play. I'll leave it up to them to get the game going and see what happens."

Ryu shared details of a team meeting with the players at their hotel.

"Yes, the conditions are very tough," Ryu told reporters, acknowledging the tiebreaker. "But we can also say that here is our opportunity. So let's go in a positive way."

Citing the normal length of a game, he added: "Let's focus the entire three hours and do your role and otherwise, the number will come after, and then the result is coming after as well."

A Trip to the WBC Quarterfinals

In the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals, South Korea will play a TBD opponent on Friday, March 13 in Miami.

Days before the Koreans' next game, Moon spoke about his fierce competitive drive.

"Like I said previously, the WBC is the top of the elite baseball tournaments and we don't know yet who we will face in the quarterfinals," Moon told reporters. "All I can say is the environment gave me extra energy, and I tried to do my best."

He then said, "I would like to show my best to the fans. All I can say is I'd like to go and climb to the top."