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

South Korea suffered a second consecutive defeat at the ongoing regional baseball tournament in Tokyo, falling to Japan with a score of 9-5 on Friday. The Korean team, composed of Korea Baseball Organization stars, failed to capitalize on an early lead and was ultimately undone by powerful home runs. The decisive blow came in the eighth inning when Rui Muneyama hit a three-run home run for Japan, securing their victory.

This marks South Korea's second loss in the Asia Professional Baseball Championship (APBC), following an 8-7 defeat to Australia on Thursday. The tournament's next fixtures include South Korea facing Taiwan at 7 p.m. Saturday, while Japan will play against Australia at noon on the same day. Following round-robin play, the bottom two teams will compete in the third-place match at 11 a.m. Sunday, while the top two nations will face off in the championship final at 7 p.m. Sunday.

This is the third edition of the APBC, with South Korea previously finishing as runner-up to Japan in each of the two prior tournaments. In order to secure its third consecutive final appearance, South Korea will need to defeat Taiwan and have Japan fail to advance.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.