NC Dinos Kim Joo-won shared his thoughts ahead of his first postseason appearance.
NC will play the first game of the wild card match against the Doosan Bears in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League postseason at Changwon NC Park on the 19th. NC, which was in 3rd place until early October, was unable to use its strength at the end of the regular season and had to compete with SSG Landers and Doosan for rankings. And in the last two games, they suffered consecutive losses to the KIA Tigers and ended up finishing the regular season in 4th place.
NC, which finished the Gwangju KIA game on the 17th, received a report card of 4th place and will immediately advance to the wild card match after a day’s rest. NC, which has a one-win advantage over Doosan, can confirm its advancement to the semi-playoffs just by winning on this day. In the case of Doosan, they must catch both the first and second games.
NC will play a game at ‘N-Pac’ for the first time this fall with the support of home fans. NC previously advanced to the postseason twice after moving to the new stadium, Changwon NC Park. In 2019, it entered the postseason in 5th place and did not have a home game, and in 2020, it won the combined championship, but due to the aftermath of COVID-19 at the time, NC entered the postseason in 5th place and had no home games. could not play the game.
On this day, the NC team consisted of Son Ah-seop (designated hitter) ~ Park Min-woo (second baseman) ~ Park Geon-woo (right fielder) ~ Jason Martin (center fielder) ~ Kwon Hee-dong (left fielder) ~ Kim Joo-won (shortstop) ~ Seo Ho-cheol (third baseman) ~ Kim Hyeong-jun (catcher) ~ Do Tae-hoon The starting lineup was formed in that order (first baseman). While ‘Ace’ Eric Peddy, who started in the game against KIA on the 16th, was unable to pitch due to schedule, Tanner Turley took on the important responsibility of starting the first game.
Shortstop Kim Joo-won will make his first postseason appearance today. Kim Joo-won, who graduated from Yushin High School, wore the NC uniform as the 6th overall pick in the 2nd 1st round in 2021, and has grown into NC’s starting shortstop from last year to this season. This year, Kim Joo-won played in 127 regular season games, recording 94 hits, 10 home runs, 54 RBIs, 56 runs, 15 stolen bases, and a batting average of 0.233.
In particular, this year, he was selected as a member of the national team for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and gained great game experience by stepping onto the international competition stage. Senior Son Ah-seop also said of Kim Joo-won, “She has noticeably become more relaxed.” Kim Joo-won also admitted, “After going through such a competition, I think I’ve grown without realizing it and I feel like I’ve gained some composure.”
The pitcher that Kim Joo-won faced that day was Kwak Bin, who also wore the national team uniform. Kwak Bin was unable to pitch at the Hangzhou Asian Games due to symptoms of phlegm, but returned to Doosan and became the winning pitcher in the Jamsil KIA game on the 13th with a good pitch, allowing 1 run, 9 strikeouts, and 2 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings in the Jamsil KIA game on the 13th.
In the regular season matchup, Kim Joo-won was weak with no hits in five at-bats. Kim Joo-won said about having to deal with Kwak Bin, “I don’t think there’s anything particularly different. We start the same way, and he’s a pitcher we have to deal with the same way. I’m not thinking about that, I’m just thinking about winning the same way.”토토사이트
In fact, it is a shame that NC, which was hoping for second place, ended the regular season in fourth place rather than third place. However, Kim Joo-won said, “We had a bad comeback in the KIA match, but after everyone finished, ‘Didn’t everyone expect us to be in the bottom tier when we first started anyway? 4th place was good enough,’ and thought of it as the beginning, not the end, and talked about trying again. “He said. He added, “Of course, it would have been nice if I had finished in third place, but I did well enough in fourth place, so I said that so as not to fall too far down.”
Kim Joo-won, the first fall baseball player at NC Park, said, “This is my first time playing fall baseball at NC Park. I am honored to be able to play and it will be fun. I am looking forward to it and I am excited.” When asked, ‘Which part do you think will be the most important?’, he said, “I think defense will be the most important. Since it is a short-term game, if a mistake is made in defense, the team can be destroyed at once. So, I will try to think about defense first.”
At the same time, he also showed his proud desire for daily MVP. Kim Joo-won asked the reporters how much the Daily MVP prize money was and laughed, saying, “I’ll try to get it.”