S. Korea falls to Japan for 2nd straight loss at regional baseball tournament

South Korea dropped to Japan 9-5 for its second straight loss at an ongoing regional baseball tournament in Tokyo on Friday, as it failed to hold on to an early lead and got undone by long balls.

South Korea surrendered four home runs in the teams’ second game of the Asia Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) at Tokyo Dome, none more devastating than the go-ahead three-run bomb by Rui Muneyama in the bottom of the eighth inning.

South Korea, made up of Korea Baseball Organization stars, opened the competition with an 8-7 loss to Australia on Thursday. Managed by Choi Won-ho, South Korea will next face Taiwan at 7 p.m. Saturday, while Japan will take on Australia at noon Saturday.

After the completion of round-robin play, the bottom two teams will meet in the third-place match at 11 a.m. Sunday, while the top two nations will square off in the championship final at 7 p.m. Sunday.

This is the third edition of the APBC. South Korea finished as the runner-up to Japan at each of the two earlier tournaments.

In order to reach its third straight final, South Korea must beat Taiwan and have Japan defeat Australia on Saturday. In that case, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia will all finish at 1-2 and will go to a tiebreaking formula to determine who will face Japan for the championship.

The APBC is for players aged 24 years and younger or those with no more than three years of professional experience. Teams can each take up to three players who are between 24 and 29 years old.

Han Dong-hui gave South Korea a 1-0 lead with a solo home run off starter Kazuyuki Takemaru in the top of the third inning.

The lead was short-lived, though, as Tomoya Masaki blasted a two-run home run off starter Kim Jin-uk in the bottom third.

The teams traded zeroes for a couple of innings, before Taiga Kojima drilled a solo home run in the bottom sixth off South Korea’s second pitcher, Jhun Jun-pyo, to push Japan’s lead to 3-1.

Japan launched another home run to extend its lead to 5-1, with Muneyama smoking a two-run shot off South Korean reliever Park Si-won in the bottom seventh.

With Japan seemingly well on its way to a victory, South Korea erased the four-run deficit in a hurry in the top eighth.

After a walk and a fielder’s choice put two runners aboard, Han picked up his second RBI of the game with a loud single off the right field wall. The hit came against Shunsuke Nakamori, who got the hook without retiring a batter.

Then against new pitcher Shunya Morita, Kim Whee-jip smoked a three-run home run to tie the game at 5-5.

Japan, though, landed the knockout blow in the bottom eighth.

New pitcher Kim Young-woo hit Shinya Hasegawa to begin the inning. A sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second, but Kim got Yudai Shoji to fly out to center, now an out away from escaping the inning unscathed.

With first base open, Kim intentionally walked Masaki, who had homered earlier in the game. But then Muneyama, who had also gone deep in the previous inning, was due up next, and the No. 2 hitter broke the deadlock with his three-run homer to right-center field.

Japan added another run later in the eighth courtesy of Koki Yamaguchi’s double.

South Korea failed to push back in the top ninth against reliever Hibiki Shinohara.