South Korea, managed by Ryu Ji-hyun, beat Taiwan 5-0 on September 21 in their opening Group B game at Okazaki Central Park Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

Starter Kwak Bin worked six innings, allowing two walks and no hits while striking out ten. He mixed a fastball topping 157 kilometers per hour with a slider, changeup and curve.

Taiwan did not record a hit until the ninth. Taiwanese coverage noted the side struck out fifteen times in a shutout loss while carrying Chen Chen-wei's remark, after the first hit, that the team could not let the momentum go.

Taiwan's starter Lin Yi-wei allowed no earned runs over five innings. He graded his own outing at 85 points afterwards and said he would pursue another chance at professional baseball.

South Korea is chasing a fifth consecutive Asian Games title. Yoon Dong-hee added an insurance home run.

Between Three Years Ago and Today

South Korean baseball carries the memory of a bitter loss to Taiwan at an international tournament in 2023. Kwak Bin was on the mound then too. Throwing hitless ball against the same opponent means something different for the player and the team.

It remains an opening group game. Asian Games baseball is a short tournament in which squad composition and schedule management often decide outcomes, and Japan's home advantage and amateur-centered rosters are still variables.

Games between South Korea and Taiwan matter particularly to fans on both sides. The gap in ability is narrow and the history long, so one result tends to become the motivation for the next. It will be no different this time.