NC Dinos backup catcher Joong-yeol Ahn is showing his presence despite batting average of 0. He plays a salty role in the defense and pitching lead. He was also the hidden protagonist in his rise to No. 1.
NC won 6-4 after an extended game against LG in Jamsil on the 18th. In the last 10 games, including the last 3 wins, they have been on the rise with 8 wins and 2 losses and took first place.
In this game,메이저놀이터, Captain Son A-seop was the 4th hitter and played an active role with 3 hits, 1 RBI and 1 run in 4 at-bats. In the 10th inning, Joo-Won Kim hit the final blow. However, after the match, coach Kang In-kwon and Son Ah-seop praised a separate player. It was catcher Ahn Joong-yeol.
In defense at the bottom of the 6th inning with a lead of 3-2, NC made a mistake by shortstop Kim Joo-won, who missed LG’s lead hitter Moon Bo-kyung’s batted ball. As the ball rolled slowly into the outfield, Moon Bo-kyung jumped to second base and made it safe.
Crisis tied with second base safely. When Kim Min-seong’s first ball came high in bunt stance, he did not bunt. Ahn Joong-yeol, who quickly saw the position of Moon Bo-gyeong, who had a long lead, threw a bullet to second base and tagged him out. It was a check to break the flow of LG pursuit.
NC allowed Austin a two-run home run to tie the game after one out in the eighth inning. Moon Bo-kyung then went on base with a right-handed hit. LG put in Shin Min-jae, the runner-up, and attempted to steal second base. However, Ahn Joong-yeol tagged out Shin Min-jae, the quick runner, with an accurate throw this time as well.
Mentioning LG’s countermeasures against running baseball before the game that day, coach Kang In-kwon said, “Ahn Joong-yeol has a good shoulder, but the throwing accuracy is a little… ”, but Ahn Joong-yeol caught a decisive outcount on second base twice.
Ahn Joong-yeol played in 7 games until the 18th and has a batting average of 0.000 with no hits in 14 at-bats. He has 1 RBI, 1 run and 4 walks. On this day, he had no hits, but he also hit Altoran-like walks and sacrifice flies.
Ahn Joong-yeol struck out in the 2nd inning and withdrew with a fly ball in the 4th inning, but picked a walk with 2 outs and 1st and 3rd bases in the 6th inning and led to the bases loaded. Afterwards, he was able to lead 3-2 with a ball hit by Do Tae-hoon in the 2nd baseman.
NC took the lead again, 5-4, with Kim Joo-won’s 1st RBI double in the 10th overtime with 1 out, 1st and 3rd base. Next was An Joong-yeol at bat. He persistently hit fouls against Kim Jin-seong, his main weapon, with a forkball, and widened the score to 6-4 with a sacrifice fly to the right fielder in the 8th pitch. A difference of 1 point and 2 points in overtime is a big difference.
After the game, coach Kang In-kwon praised, “Ahn Jung-yeol’s defense was the basis for the team’s victory,” and Son Ah-seop also said, “(Ahn) Joong-yeol stopped stealing in a very important situation and put the second base runner out as a check. (Park) Se-hyeok is missing, but the player behind him is playing his part well.”
After the match, Ahn Joong-yeol said, “I thought that Se-hyuk hyung was injured and I had to work harder, thinking that I had to fill the vacancy. He didn’t help me much on offense, so I tried my best on defense. It feels good that the team came out like that today,” he said.
He didn’t get a hit in his last at-bat, but he scored a wedge with a sacrifice fly that was as good as a hit. Ahn Joong-yeol said, “I thought I had to hit the ball somehow because the infielders were in the front. Hitting coach Song Ji-man told me to hit in front of the plate, and I hit with the idea of just hitting the ball to make an in-play batting ball, but it turned out good.”
Park Sae-hyeok was hit on the back of the head by a bat and collapsed after Heredia’s miss in the Incheon SSG match on the 14th. The back of the head was torn by 2 to 3 cm, and he is out of the first team entry to be careful of possible sequelae such as concussion. Ahn Joong-yeol is wearing a catcher’s mask after Park Se-hyuk collapses. In the last 3 games in which Ahn Joong-yeol, who moved to NC as a reward player for FA Noh Jin-hyuk (Lotte), started, NC won all and rose to first place.