T-ball players from Geumdong Elementary School in Seoul competed against Japan’s Chunichi Dragons T-ball team. Students from Korea, Japan, and Taiwan enjoyed the competition together and made good memories.
Geumdong Elementary School’s T-ball team, ‘Seoul Dream Sam’, won 2 wins and 1 loss in the international exchange league preliminary league match at the ‘2023 KBO Youth T-ball Festival Elementary Sports Club Tee-ball Competition’ held at the KBO Baseball Center in Boeun-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do on the 30th. In the end, they played against the Aichi prefectural union team from Japan (T-ball team under Chunichi), but lost 6-7 in the end.
Even though they lost in the match, the gilt-dong-cho showed performance comparable to that of the Aichi prefectural team. It was hard to believe that they were elementary school players, and they played a thrilling game with stable defense and sharp hitting. After the match, the coaches of both teams shared thanks to the players of the opposing team, praising their outstanding performance and promising the next match. The players also exchanged friendships with the players of the opposing team who had a fierce game.
Cho Won-bin, captain of the Seoul Dream Spring, said, “The Japanese team seems to be doing very well. If I can go to Japan next time, I really want to win. The Japanese coach also said that today’s game was good, see you next time in Japan. I practiced hard in the meantime, but I will work harder in the future.”
Shota Yamada of the Aichi prefectural team said, “All of our teams played together as one. The results were good and everything seemed to go well as intended. When we played the last game against Seoul Dream Sam, we gave 5 points at first, and we were nervous because we only scored 5 points in our attack. However, in the next defense, we caught the first fly ball well, and then the double hit came out, so it seems that our play came out well.”
Park Seung-beom, Seoul Dream Sam, said, “It was really fun to play today. The Japanese team was also really good, so it was more fun.” Lee Ju-won, who hit the inside-the-park home run that day, said, “At first, I was disappointed that I couldn’t catch the ball well. But later, I hit a ground home run and I was so happy,” he laughed.
Choi Ji-woo said, “Japanese players seem to be in their 3rd or 4th grade, and they played very well.” It seems that this is the feeling that small peppers are spicy. I played a good game, so my heart beat quickly,” he said about the feeling of playing against the Japanese team. Kang Yun-seong, who kept the home base that day, added, “I was surprised that the Japanese players were so good at defending.”
After finishing the day’s schedule, the players of the combined team of Geumdongcho and Aichi Prefecture held a welcome ceremony with the players of Shendong Elementary School from Taiwan. The students of Geumdong Elementary School welcomed their friends from abroad with a recorder performance, and the students of Xiandong Elementary School cheered up the atmosphere with a fun dance. The students from the three countries who exchanged gifts with each other did not communicate well, but quickly became friends and enjoyed the event together. 꽁머니
Teacher Moon Seong-hwan, who leads the Geumdong Elementary School tee-ball team, said, “It is an experience that is not easy to spend time with children from other countries at such a young age. The memory of this day will be a great nourishment for living in the future,” he said, expecting the students to finish the competition with good memories.