The fans’ passion for baseball was not dampened by the torrential downpour that drenched the giant tarps. Despite the 78-minute rain delay, most of the 3,154 spectators remained in their seats, singing along to the chants and waiting for the game to resume. One fan even expressed his gratitude to the ground and stands maintenance personnel who worked hard to resume the game by saying, “I’m a swearer.”
The NC Dinos won 5-4 against the Doosan Bears of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Changwon NC Park on Thursday after a hard-fought game that lasted 4 hours and 57 minutes, including a rain delay.
In fact, NC was on the verge of losing a cold game. Trailing 3-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Bears had runners on first and third with nobody out. With Seo Ho-cheol batting on a 1-2 count, umpire Lee Min-ho called a rain delay. At this point, NC coach Kang In-hwa walked out and appealed to the umpire. He wanted to finish the offense in the bottom of the seventh inning.
According to KBO rules, a suspended game 토토사이트 can be declared when “a cold game is called in the middle of an inning due to weather and (A) the visiting team scores one or more runs to tie the game and the home team fails to score, or (B) the visiting team scores a run to take the lead and the home team fails to come back or tie the game.
However, Doosan took a 4-3 lead in the top of the fifth inning and did not score in the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the seventh inning, NC’s offense was halted due to rain, so if the game ended as it did, NC would have to accept a somewhat unfortunate loss.
The referees called a rain delay, but they were under pressure to finish the game, so they waited for the rain to stop as soon as possible. At 9:06 p.m., the game was called off, but after 30 minutes, the rain continued to fall, and after 50 minutes, the referee ordered the grounds to be cleaned.
At this point, the ground and grandstand crews got busy, with about 10 grounds crews doing their best to maintain the large tarps that were filled with water, and they finished in about 30 minutes. The stadium maintenance crew wiped and swept away as much rainwater as they could for the fans who waited for the game to resume in the downpour. Fans who were able to continue cheering were grateful to the maintenance crews.
As soon as the game resumed in the bottom of the seventh inning, NC struck back with an RBI single by Park Min-woo to tie the game at 4-4. In the bottom of the ninth, leadoff hitter Son Ah-seob led off with an infield single to left center field, setting the stage for the eventual game-winner. Seo Ho-cheol then laid down a sacrifice bunt, but Doosan closer Hong Gun-hee made a throwing error trying to catch the runner at second, putting runners on first and third. Park Min-woo was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Martin came through with the game-winning hit to send the fans home happy.
After the game, Kang expressed his gratitude to the fans, saying, “Thanks to the fans who supported us in bad weather, we were able to gain strength and win the game.”
Martin, who hit the winning run, said, “Despite the rain delay, the fans stayed and cheered us on, and we were able to win. The team has been on a roll lately, so when the game resumed, I knew we were going to win. I will do my best to help the team win a lot. Once again, we are grateful to our fans for staying and supporting us despite the rain delay.”