There’s no day to stop laughing.

The Hanwha Eagles in the professional baseball league have won seven consecutive games in the early days of the 2024 season, ranking highest on the list. On top of that, Hwang Joon-seo (19), a left-hander who is the top rookie draft pick, showed better-than-expected pitching in his debut game, and his smile seems to be on the lips of Hanwha’s club and its fans.

Hanwha this season is different from the past. It is ranking first in the league with seven wins and one loss in eight games so far. It has garnered seven consecutive wins since losing the opening game.

The biggest reason why Hanwha can gain momentum is that it has the strongest and most stable starting pitchers among the 10 teams. Starting with Ryu Hyun-jin (37), starting pitcher Felix Peña (34), Kim Min-woo (28), Ricardo Sanchez (26), and Moon Dong-ju (22) will be rotated in order.

In the meantime, a player who showed great potential to penetrate the starting rotation appeared. He is Hwang Joon-seo, an “excellent rookie” who won his debut match.

Hwang Joon-seo started the “2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League” kt Wiz match held at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on the 31st of last month. In the order of the previous rotation, Kim Min-woo should have taken the starting mound, but Kim Min-woo was unable to throw the ball on that day due to symptoms of gallbladder.

In the end, Hwang Joon-seo, who was in the second division, was given the chance to start. Hwang threw 73 pitches during five innings, allowing one run, three hits, two walks and five strikeouts. Thanks to Hwang’s performance, the Hanwha Eagles defeated the KT Wiz 14-3 on the day, and concluded the weekend series with three consecutive wins.

Hwang has lived up to expectations. Hailing from Jangchung High School in Seoul, he will join the Hanwha Eagles as the No. 1 player in the first round of the rookie draft this year. Since his high school days, Hwang has been praised by experts for his fearless pitching. In particular, high quality folk ball is Hwang’s longest score.

In fact, Hwang made 34 fork balls out of the 73 pitches he threw in his debut as a pro. He handled professional players as the most confident pitch, and the balls worked perfectly on the professional stage. He also added 33 fastballs and six curves.

However, some say that folk balls alone are not enough for him to endure in a professional game. In fact, Choi Won-ho, the coach of the team, reportedly gave Hwang Joon-seo advice.

“Hwang Joon-seo tends to focus too much on fastballs and forkballs,” Choi said on Friday. “He is asking us to divide curves and sliders together and throw them,” Choi said. “I depend too much on forkballs. That’s why I have to keep throwing curves and sliders,” he added. “I told him to throw various breaking balls.”

BY: 스포츠토토