South Korea celebrates Premier 12 championship with epic teammate flip
The inaugural Premier 12 tournament held in Japan and Taiwan had a little bit of everything.
That includes dominant pitching, long home runs, epic bat flips and, yes, even epic teammate flips.
After South Korea completed its improbable run to the Premier 12 championship, defeating the United States 8-0 in the tournament final on Saturday, the team celebrated by launching one of their own into the air.
[Elsewhere: David Ortiz insisted Torii Hunter Jr. get his locker for Fenway football game]
Perhaps the human bat flip would be more apropos. Regardless, the sheer joy of the South Korean squad was evident after they rallied to upset Japan 4-3 in the semifinal and overwhelmed the U.S. in the finals.
The tournament featured each of the the top 12 ranked national teams. South Korea came in at No. 8, so it truly was a great run to emerge from the Premier 12 tournament with the gold medal. They finished the tournament 6-2, suffering losses to Japan and the United States during the round-robin portion. That they bounced back to avenge those losses makes the run even more impressive.
Byung Ho Park, whom the Minnesota Twins recently won the bid to negotiate a big-league contract, hit a three-run homer to key South Korea’s championship victory. That was part of a five-run fourth inning. Hyun-soo Kim capped his huge tournament by going 3-for-5 with three RBIs. He was later named tournament Most Valuable Player.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
– – – – – – –
Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
