South Korea manager Ryu Ji-hyun celebrates his team's 11-4 win over Czechia in the teams' Pool C game at the World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Thursday. Yonhap

TOKYO — The lopsided score notwithstanding, South Korean manager Ryu Ji-hyun breathed a sigh of relief after winning the team's first game of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) on Thursday.

Behind two home runs by Shay Whitcomb and one dinger each by Jahmai Jones and Moon Bo-gyeong, South Korea beat up Czechia 11-4 to begin Pool C play at Tokyo Dome.

It was the first time since 2009, four tournaments ago, that South Korea won its opening game at a WBC. On the three occasions when the team dropped the first games, South Korea missed out on the knockout stage.

"These first games are never easy," Ryu said at his postgame press conference. "It doesn't matter who the opponent is. There is always some tension in the air in a game like this. Fortunately, we got a grand slam in the first inning and it made things easy for us from the start."

Ryu was referring to Moon's first-inning blast that put South Korea up 4-0. The lead grew to 6-0 after a groundout by Jones and a solo shot by Whitcomb, before reliever Jeong Woo-joo served up a three-run shot to Terrin Vavra in the fifth.

Whitcomb restored order for South Korea with a two-run homer in the fifth and the rout was on.

"We built some good momentum in our scrimmages in Okinawa," Ryu said of his earlier training camp in southwestern Japan. "And then we were able to continue with that in exhibition games in Osaka and now in Tokyo. Things are moving in the right direction offensively."

Jeong was supposed to have been the second pitcher of the game behind So Hyeong-jun, who gave South Korea three shutout innings. But Ryu said he wanted to send the 19-year-old Jeong to face the lower part of the opposing lineup, and Noh Kyung-eun, 41, ended up taking the ball to start the fourth inning against cleanup Martin Cervenka.

Jeong's first batter was No. 9 hitter Max Prejda in the fifth, but the right-hander hit him with his very first pitch, setting the stage for Vavra's home run. Jeong only lasted that one inning.

Source: Korea Times News