NC upsets Lotte in front of sellout crowd
For the first time in four years and five months, the NC Dinos gave their fans a “come-from-behind” victory at their home stadium.
The Dinos defeated the Lotte Giants 6-5 in the second game of a doubleheader in the Baseball World Series 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Changwon NC Park on April 9.
A sellout crowd of 17,861 fans attended the second game of the doubleheader.
It was the third time in the history of Changwon NC Park, which opened in 2019, that the stadium was sold out, following the opening game against the Samsung Lions on March 23, 2019, and the game against Lotte on April 13.
The first game of the doubleheader was attended by 19,333 fans, and NC lost 2-5 on a two-run home run by Lotte’s Jung-Hoon Chung in the sixth inning.
Game 2, in front of a full house, was a different story.
The game started with Lotte scoring and NC chasing.
NC took the lead in the first inning when Jeon Jun-woo hit a two-run home run.
In the bottom of the second, Kim Joo-won hit an RBI single, but in the top of the third, Lotte scored two runs on an RBI single by Jeon Jun-woo and a wild pitch by NC starter Choi Sung-young to take a 4-1 lead.
NC got one run back in the bottom of the inning on Son Asub’s infield single to shortstop and Park Min-woo’s double to left field. After Lotte shortstop Lee Hak-joo’s throw home was dropped, Park advanced to third and came home on Jason Martin’s sacrifice fly to center field.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the game turned around.
Trailing 3-4, NC had runners on first and third after Oh Young-soo doubled to right-center and Kim Joo-won singled to right.
Pinch-hitter Park Gun-woo struck out, but with runners on first and third, substitute Choi Jung-won hit a grounder to second base to tie the game at 4-4. LOTTE second baseman Niko Gudrum threw home, but Oh Young-soo reached first.
Son As-seop followed with a walk and Seo Ho-cheol hit a two-run double that landed in front of the right fielder.
Lotte cut the deficit to 5-6 in the top of the seventh on Jeon Jun-woo’s sacrifice fly to right field with the bases loaded, but Ahn Kwon-soo was tagged out trying to steal second to third. 토토사이트