Gangneung High School’s ‘193cm Tall Lee Do-ryu’ Cho Dae-hyeon played an active part as both a pitcher and a hitter, leading the team to the quarterfinals of the 77th Golden Lion National High School Baseball Championship.
On May 22, Gangneung High School welcomed the ‘ambush’ Yulgok High Baseball Team in the Hwangsagi round of 16 held at Mokdong Stadium in Seoul and won 2-1. Gangneung High School, which advanced to the quarterfinals, will play Seongnam High School in the quarterfinals at 2:00 pm on the 24th at Mokdong Stadium.
On this day, Gangneung High School started operating the mound by raising starting pitcher Cheon Beom-seok. When Chun Beom-seok pitched 3 innings, 3 hits, 3 strikeouts, and no runs, Gangneung High School made the first run with Park Chae-woon’s grounder RBI at the end of the 2nd inning with 1 company, 1st and 3rd base.
Following Chun Beom-seok, Park Ji-hoon took the mound from the 4th inning and recorded 4 hits, 2 strikeouts and 1 run in 3.1 innings. When Park Ji-hoon was hit by a double by Kim Jun-hwan after one run in the top of the 7th inning, Gangneung High School’s bench immediately put ‘ace’ Dae-hyeon Cho on the mound.
Cho Dae-hyeon caught Park Jun-bum with a shortstop grounder, but Lee Ji-yoon scored an RBI in the 2nd and 3rd base crisis, allowing a 1-1 tie.
Gangneung High School, which was attacked by Yulgok High School without any additional runs, scored the final score at the end of the 8th inning. After one out at the end of the 8th inning, Gangneung High School took a chance on first and second bases with a hit by Lee Chan-seo and a walk by Jo Dae-hyeon. Following this, Lee Yul-ye, the follow-up hitter, scored a valuable RBI with a timely hit to the left.
Cho Dae-hyun, who climbed the mound even in the beginning of the ninth inning with a 2-1 lead, maintained a one-point lead with a clean three-way strike and even gained the glory of a winning pitcher. On this day, Cho Dae-hyun showed off an ace-like pitching with 2 hits and no runs in 2.2 innings. In the at-bat as the designated hitter number 4, Cho Dae-hyun contributed to the team’s batting line with 1 hit and 1 walk in 3 at-bats.
Cho Dae-hyun, who met with reporters after winning the 16th game, said, “It was a tight atmosphere, but I am happy that our team won. His physical condition was not 100%, but he focused on the mound in the middle of the game and got good results. In this tournament, I tried to focus on the pitcher, so I felt like I let the batter go too far (laughs). Still, I tried to focus on both the mound and at-bat today. He said, “Since I often look at the opponent’s pitcher’s ball, I feel like I’m finding my hitting feeling little by little.”
Cho Dae-hyun, who is attracting attention for his ‘double-edged sword’, still attracts more attention as ‘pitcher Jo Dae-hyun’ in the rookie nomination. He revealed that the player himself wants to show more of his charm as a pitcher in order to advance to the professional stage.
Cho Dae-hyun said, “I think my strengths are more as a pitcher, so I hope to receive more attention as a pitcher in the future. He’ll go pro and try hard if he’s given a hitter, but if asked to pick one, he’s more attached to a pitcher. He nodded, saying, “It’s not easy to breathe deeply when you step on the mound after stepping into the plate, but it seems to get better when you throw.”
Cho Dae-hyun recorded the highest speed of 151 km / h in his official game this year. Cho Dae-hyun, who picked Choi Ji-min (KIA Tigers) as his role model as a pitcher, expressed his mindset that he would not care as much as possible about the rapidly emerging TOP 3 evaluation. Following Jang Hyun-seok (Masan Yongma High School) and Hwang Jun-seo (Jangchung High School) TOP 2 recently, Cho Dae-hyun is emerging as a strong candidate for the third nomination in the first round held by the Lotte Giants.
Cho Dae-hyun said, “I want to pick Choi Ji-min, a senior at school, as my role model as a pitcher. He has never really thought of a hitter role model. He has not lived with senior Choi Ji-min at school, but he remembers having a few conversations with him when he came to school for training for about a month when he transferred. He tries not to care too much about the order of nominations. He believes that good nomination results will follow if he only focuses on what he has to do on the mound.”
Cho Dae-hyun remembers swallowing the regret of losing to Deoksu High School in the final of the E-Mart Cup National High School Baseball Championship held in mid-April. Cho Dae-hyeon, who was unable to make it to the mound in the final due to the pitch limit at the time, made up his mind to make it to the mound in the final round in this Hwangsagi competition.
Cho Dae-hyun said,안전놀이터 “It was very disappointing to finish runner-up in the E-Mart Cup. At the time of E-Mart Bae, I tried to do it only with my strength on the mound, but now I feel like I am running the game because I have a little more time on the mound. In this Hwangsagi competition, the biggest goal is to go up to the final mound and throw the ball while managing the number of pitches well.”