Professional baseball LG Twins pitcher Son Joo-young demonstrated the expectations for the next-generation national left-handed ace. Son Joo-young showcased a flawless no-hit performance over 4 innings in his first appearance during the exhibition game.

On the 9th, Son Joo-young took the mound as the starting pitcher against the KT Wiz in the exhibition game of the 2025 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League held at Suwon KT Wiz Park. He threw 56 pitches over 4 innings, achieving no hits, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, and no runs. His fastball reached a maximum speed of 149 km.

With a powerful fastball (27 pitches) and a sharply breaking cutter (15 pitches), along with a curveball that disrupted timing (10 pitches) and a forkball (4 pitches), he demonstrated stable control, not allowing solid contact. Only 3 balls were hit into the outfield.

Son Joo-young got the leadoff batter Baek Jung-deok out with a ground ball to shortstop and walked Rohas. He struck out Heo Kyung-min with a cutter (138 km) for a swinging strikeout and ended the inning with Kim Min-hyuk's ground ball to shortstop.

The 2nd inning ended in a quick three outs. He struck out Oh Yun-seok with a cutter (139 km) in a full count, and handled Oh Jae-il with a flyout to right field. Jang Jin-hyuk recorded an out with a ground ball to second base, ending the inning scoreless.

In the 3rd inning, although he allowed 1 walk, he continued with no hits and no runs. He got the leadoff batter Kang Hyun-woo out on a flyout to right field and struck out Kim Sang-soo with a Samjin. After 2 outs, he walked Baek Jung-deok but got Rohas out with a flyout to third base for the third out.

In the 4th inning, Son Joo-young got the leadoff batter Heo Kyung-min out with a ground ball to shortstop, and handled Kim Min-hyuk with a flyout to center field. After 2 outs, he ended the inning with Oh Yun-seok's ground ball to third base. He handed the ball over to bullpen pitcher Choi Chae-hyung in the 5th inning.

Son Joo-young, who was selected by LG as the 2nd overall pick in the 2017 draft, did not pitch in many games until 2023 due to military service (2019-2020) and elbow surgery (2022). His personal bests were 7 games and 26.2 innings pitched in 2021.

After completing rehabilitation, Son Joo-young returned to the first team at the end of the 2023 season and had his first full-time season last year as the 5th starter. He delivered results exceeding expectations, pitching in 28 games with a record of 9 wins, 10 losses, and 1 hold, along with an earned run average of 3.79. He pitched over the regulated innings, with a total of 144⅔ innings, ranking 2nd in earned run average among domestic pitchers, following Samsung's Won Tae-in.

Son Joo-young continued his impressive pitching in the postseason and was selected for the Premier12 national team. However, he experienced elbow pain during his last postseason appearance and could not join the national team due to minor injuries.

Manager Yeom Kyung-yup expressed strong belief that Son Joo-young would grow into the next national left-handed ace, following Ryu Hyun-jin, Yang Hyun-jong, and Kim Kwang-hyun. He showed potential during his first full-time season last year, and in this season, he needs to take another step forward to be considered for next year's World Baseball Classic (WBC) team.

Manager Yeom plans to develop Son Joo-young even more strongly this year. This season, he will use Son Joo-young as the 2nd starter in the rotation. The starting rotation will rotate in the order of Chininhos, Son Joo-young, Hernandez, Lim Chan-kyu, and Song Seung-ki. This shows the level of confidence Yeom has in Son Joo-young, not using foreign pitchers in the 1st or 2nd spots.

Manager Yeom stated that if Son Joo-young grows to become a starting pitcher this year, he plans to utilize him as the opening day starter in the 2026 season, surpassing foreign pitchers.

[OSEN]