Hana Card with Kim Ga-young

Kim Ga-young, the “Lady of Billiards” who played a decisive role in winning the first game of the semi-playoff, is cheering. PBA

Hana Card beat SY in a playoff with “Woman Power” and succeeded in taking the lead.

Hana Card beat SY with a set score of 4:2 thanks to strong performances by Kim Ga-young and Ayako Sakai of Japan, who collaborated for two wins, in the first round of the semi-playoff of the “Welcome Savings Bank PBA Team League 2023-2024 Postseason” held at the KINTEX PBA Stadium in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province on the 18th. As a result, Hana Card has an important position in the semi-PO, which is the best-of-three series, and has one win left until the playoff.

Hana Card smiled from the beginning of the game. With “Vietnam Express” Q. Nguyen and Kim Byung-ho spearheading the race, Hana Card defeated Daniel Sanchez of Spain and Park In-soo 11:10 (seven innings). Notably, Q. Nguyen had a good start by scoring 10 points out of 11 points in the fifth inning alone, including seven high-runs in the fifth inning when his team was trailing 2:9.

Immediately, Kim Ga-young and Sakai added one win. In the match against Han Ji-eun and Han Seul-ki, Kim Ga-young scored the first goal in three innings, and the two were trailing 1:5 after giving up five high-runs to Han in three innings.

Han Ji Eun and Han Seulgi. PBA

Kim Ga-young added three more runs in five innings to start the chase, and Kim Ga-young scored seven runs and Sakai scored two runs until the ninth inning without a hit. On the other hand, SY was unable to score an additional run due to a hit after Han Ji-eun’s high run. Hana Card won 9:5 (9 innings).

SY also did not back down. Spanish “three-cushion legend” Sanchez showed his true value and scored 15 points in four innings. He scored 5-2-5-3 without a bank shot to fill the gap with 15 points. Hana Card’s Murat Najee Choklu of Turkiye also had 10 high-runs and 13 points in the second inning, but was not good enough to catch up with Sanchez’s on the cutting edge. 스포츠토토

Choklu, who regained his breath, beat Sakai, Hwang Deuk-hee and Lee Woo-kyung 9:4 in seven innings in the fourth set, widening the gap to 3:1. However, in the fifth set, Park In-soo defeated Shin Jung-joo 11:9 (8 innings), and SY again set the stage for a 2:3 set score.

This could lead to a full set. Kim Ga-young, the “Queen of Billboards,” sealed her team’s victory in the sixth set. After connecting the first pitch with a bank shot, Kim scored one point in the third inning, one point in the sixth inning, and four points left in the ninth inning, finishing the game 9:7 in the ninth inning. Han outpaced Kim Ga-young in the second inning with six points including a bank shot, but it was painful to turn into a ball in the next five innings.

Hanji is… PBA

Hana Card, which won one game first, and SY, who lost one game, will enter the second round of the semi-playoff from 4 p.m. on the 19th. If Hana Card wins, it will advance to the playoffs immediately, and if SY wins, the team that advances to the playoffs will be determined through the third round of the semi-playoff from 9:30 p.m. on the same day.

The list of participants in the second game of the postseason will be announced at 12 p.m. on the 19th, and if the third game is played against 1-1, the list of participants in the third game will be announced immediately after the end of the second game.

Meanwhile, the PBA is holding a “predicting the winning team” event through social media for the postseason. If the winning team is predicted, 10 winners will be drawn and all winners will be given sign balls and commemorative merchandise. If the team predicts all four teams that will win from semi-playoff to playoff A and B finals, the team will be given tickets (two tickets per person) for all next season’s team league games.