"There's no jinx for the first round."Ryu Joong Ilho, today's match against Taiwan.

[Anchor]
Our national baseball team will play its first game against Taiwan today (13th) in the Premier 12, a national baseball competition.

The loss of the first game in the recent international competition has always been a drag, and as such, we desperately need to win against Taiwan to challenge the semifinals.

This is reporter Lee Kyung-jae.

[Reporter]
Following the 2006 Asian Games recorded as a Doha disaster, our national team also lost the first round and packed early in 2013 and 17 and last year's WBC.

The first round of this tournament is the most important.

Six teams in Group B will advance to the semifinals through the full league to the second place in the group, and strong teams such as Japan and the Dominican Republic are holding out, so we can see the way to the Super Round only when we beat Taiwan.

Arriving in Taiwan, the final destination on Friday last week, the national team completed preparations for the tournament through adaptation training and warm-up matches.

[KIM DO YOUNG / National team infielder: I'm fine with it, but I feel a lot awkward. It's a bit messy around here.]

[Kim Hyung-joon / National team catcher: Since pitchers have good balls, I think we just played by making use of their strengths.]

The starting pitcher who will be responsible for the Taiwan match is Sideam Ko Young-pyo.

The change-up from unfamiliar pitching movements is excellent, and local media also expressed caution that it will be a headache for hitters.

Manager Ryu Joong-il, who has set a must-win strategy for using strong bullpen pitchers such as Park Young-hyun, Jung Hae-young, and Kim Taek-yeon, expects Ko Young-pyo to spend up to five innings.

[Ryu Joong-il / Baseball team manager: First of all, it would be nice to go for about five innings as long as possible as a starting pitcher. If it's not good, I'll use it as a long relief.]

Taiwan's selection is likely to be left-handed Lin Yu-min, who played well in both games with our national team at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Considering the weight of the mound, it is more likely to flow into a tight pitching battle than a cool batting battle.

This is YTN Lee Kyungjae.