South Korea defeated Japan 3-1 in the baseball final at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games, according to olympics.com. The result, reported on Sunday, September 27, 2026, gives South Korea the gold medal and extends its run of Asian Games baseball titles to five in a row, Kyunghyang Shinmun reports.
The deciding runs came in the eighth inning, when Kim Do-young delivered the go-ahead hit, according to the Dong-A Ilbo. The newspaper framed the win as South Korea preserving its edge over Japan in the sport's regional rivalry.
Coverage after the game turned to the team's standout performers. A report on Daum noted that both Kwak Bin and Oh Seung-hwan named a different player as their pick for MVP, pointing to catcher Cho Hyung-woo. The report described the tournament as Cho's first international competition and highlighted his steady play, raising the question of whether he could become South Korea's long-term national team catcher over the next decade.
The final itself was set up as a rematch: KBS News reported that the team under manager Ryu Ji-hyun would face Japan again in the gold medal game, a meeting South Korea ultimately won by two runs.
With the gold medal decided, attention now turns to how South Korea's roster, including first-time international players such as Cho, will be handled in the next cycle of major tournaments.
