Korea national baseball team member Moon Bo-gyeong (26) is taking a charter flight to Miami.
Korea defeated Australia 7-2 in the fourth game of Pool C at the 2026 WBC (World Baseball Classic) held at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on the 9th and advanced to the WBC quarterfinals for the first time in 17 years since finishing as runner-up in 2009. Korea, which had a 1-2 record in earlier games, faced a very difficult situation requiring a win by five runs or more while allowing two runs or fewer, but turned the slim possibility into reality and headed to Miami.
Korea, which had failed to pass the first round in the last three tournaments (2013, 2017, 2023), showed a strong determination to reach the quarterfinals in this tournament. They held a training camp in Saipan in January to prepare early for the WBC, and Korean-descended Major League players such as Jermaine Jones (Detroit), Dane Dunning (Seattle), and Shay Whitcomb (Houston) were actively selected for the national team. The team's ceremony proposed by Roh Si-hwan (Korea) was an airplane ceremony meaning to take a charter flight to Miami. That showed how much they wanted to go to Miami by charter and it finally became reality.
Moon Bo-gyeong started as the designated hitter batting fifth in the final game against Australia and led Korea to the quarterfinals with a line of 5 at-bats, 3 hits, 1 home run, 4 RBIs and 1 run. He finished the first round with a .538 batting average (13 at-bats, 7 hits), 2 home runs, 11 RBIs, 3 runs and an OPS of 1.779, setting a new WBC first-round record for most RBIs and tying the record for most RBIs by a Korean national team player in WBC history.
Moon Bo-gyeong, who drove Korea to the quarterfinals with his remarkable performance, was shown getting ready to board the charter flight on the KBO YouTube channel. Holding the charter ticket and laughing as he said "Atlas," Moon Bo-gyeong expressed his feelings about taking the charter flight: "I'm so happy. It's not just any ticket, it's a charter ticket. We're going straight from Tokyo to Miami. I love it."
When asked how many RBIs he would like to have in the quarterfinals after setting several WBC RBI records, Moon Bo-gyeong said, "Rather than how many RBIs, I just want us to win. I don't really have an RBI greed. I want us to win. I will do my best to work hard and play well to show a good performance," burning with a desire for victory.
Korea, which advanced to the quarterfinals as the second-place team in Pool C, will play a single-elimination quarterfinal on the 14th against the winner of the Dominican Republic-Venezuela game (first place in Pool D) on the 12th (Korea time). Fans' expectations are growing about how far Korea, which has returned to a knockout tournament after a long time, can advance.
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