Will the main character of this year’s blue dragon flag be a new water safe? The first grade secret weapon caused a major accident.
In the semi-finals of the 78th Cheongryonggi National High School Baseball Championship and Weekend League Wangjungwangjeon (co-sponsored by the Chosun Ilbo, Sports Chosun, and the Korea Baseball Softball Association) held at Mokdong Stadium in Seoul on the 25th, the water vault won the match appeal 13-5. It was a turnaround that produced a big inning with 7 runs in the 7th inning.
At the center of the ‘revolution’ of the water safe is Jo Dong-hwi, a freshman pitcher. Jo Dong-hui is the main character who led the come-from-behind victory with a good pitching of 5 scoreless innings in the match against Masan High School in the round of 16 of the Blue Dragon Ki, which fell behind 1-11 and turned around.
‘One-two punch’ Bae Kang-hyeon and Seo Bo-han faced the limit on the number of pitches and virtually ran out of mounds in the semi-finals. Cho Dong-hui took the mound with two outs in the first inning and fought back with 4 runs (2 earned runs) in 7 innings, becoming the main player in the victory. Gong Min-seo, the captain of the water safe who is recording 10 hits in 17 at-bats for this tournament, gave the ball away, saying, “I think I came this far thanks to (Jo) Dong-hui and made it to the finals.”
Jo Dong-hwi, whom I met after the game, seemed to have not awakened the tension of the actual fight yet. On this day, he looked back on the game, saying, “Because our batters have a good sense of hitting, I believed that they would catch up even if I gave them points, so I threw them with the feeling of hitting them.” Then, when asked to introduce his strengths, he said, “Guts?” with a bashful smile.
He is from Little Baseball in Gimhae, Gyeongnam. He entered baseball when he was in the 6th grade of elementary school, and played little baseball until middle school. “I was originally going to go to another team, but the coach persuaded me to change to a water safe. I was proud to be a scout for the first time,” the answer came back.
Both the Masan Classic and today were sudden appearances. He was not in a position to count pitches or innings. Cho Dong-hwi replied, “I just threw hard. Thanks to the batters turning it around, I got stronger as I went backwards.” It is a series of extraordinary experiences at an age where growing up day by day is frightening.
With a height of 1m70 and a small physique, the youthful face catches the eye. His highest fastball speed is in the early 120km range, but he has precise control and bold guts. His role model is Lim Chang-yong. His goal this year is to raise his fastball velocity to over 130km.
“It can’t be helped that we couldn’t make it to the finals, but (unlike the Masan Classics) it’s a bit unfortunate that we gave the score today. It was with the mindset of ‘Let’s do our best until we collapse one game after another, one ball after another.꽁머니사이트
Jo Dong-hwi is a ‘secret weapon’ who never participated in an official match after entering high school until the Blue Dragon period. Coach Kang, who was thrilled to reach the finals of the first national championship in 8 years since its foundation in 2015, said with a big smile, “This is the pitcher I’ve been hiding for a day like this. Even in a crisis, I can throw the ball into the S zone, and I have a good sense of the fingertips. I’ll nurture it well in the future.”