A grand slam like cider, the 22-year-old national team shortstop found a way out of a slump

 Kim Joo-won (22, NC Dinos), who had grown into a national team shortstop and was on a roll, fell into a slump at the beginning of his fourth year. A grand slam like 'cider' came out to break through the frustrating situation.

Kim Joo-won said after the end of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League regular season home game against the Samsung Lions held at Changwon NC Park on the 10th, "I had a feeling of frustration in my heart, but when I hit a home run, that feeling of frustration disappeared."

In this day's game, Kim Joo-won played as the starting 9th hitter and shortstop, recording 2 hits in 4 at-bats, 4 RBIs, and 2 runs. He improved his batting skills by recording his first and fourth multi-hit of the season since the Gwangju KIA game on April 21 (2 hits, 1 home run, 4 at-bats). In addition, he has been on a streak of four consecutive games since the Incheon SSG game on the 4th, which is also his second record this season. He also surpassed the .200 batting average for the first time in 38 games of the season.

He remained silent for the first two at-bats. Kim Joo-won, who faced Samsung starting pitcher Connor Siebold in the 3rd and 5th innings, both struck out. In the 3rd inning, he came out as the leadoff hitter and did a good job picking out a breaking ball, but missed the bat due to a high fastball. In the 5th inning, he struck out 3 pitches on 3 fastballs.

However, Kim Joo-won announced the start of the big inning in the 7th inning. With pinch hitter Oh Young-soo, who appeared as the leadoff hitter, reaching first base with no outs, Kim Joo-won faced Samsung's second pitcher, Kim Dae-woo. Although his two bunt attempts failed and the ball count was unfavorable, he attacked a live fastball on the 4th pitch and scored a hit that rolled toward right field

NC, which created a scoring opportunity, scored a point when Son A-seop recorded a sacrifice fly following Park Min-woo's ball hitting the body. NC continued its scoring streak with Matt Davidson's push-out walk and consecutive timely hits by Kwon Hee-dong and Seo Ho-cheol, and Kim Hyeong-jun also recorded 4 push-out pitches to make it 6-0.

Kim Joo-won appeared at the plate once again in the 7th inning as NC recorded the number of batters. With the bases loaded and two outs, he pulled in a low slider from Samsung pitcher Yook Seon-yeop, and the hit became a grand slam with a distance of 120 meters that went over the right wall. It was his third home run of the season and his fifth grand slam of his career. Coincidentally, he hit three grand slams against Samsung.

Thanks to Kim Joo-won's great performance, NC won a resounding 10-3. With this, NC escaped their second consecutive loss and at the same time gained a two-game lead over third-place Samsung, and conversely trailed the first-place KIA Tigers by one game.

Kim Joo-won, whom we met after the game, said, "I was aiming for a low ball because I didn't think I would get a good hit if I aimed for a high course, but I happened to come to that course and my swing path was caught." He went on to say, "At first, I thought I might not fly because I felt like I was hit too gently, but I went further than I thought."

Kim Joo-won, who joined NC in 2021 after graduating from Yushin High School, is a player who has shown growth every year. In his first season, he succeeded in making his first-team debut without missing a gap in his team's violation of COVID-19 quarantine rules and the departure of three starting infielders due to injury. Then, in 2022, he succeeded in pushing Noh Jin-hyuk (currently Lotte) to third base and taking the starting shortstop position. Last year, he played his first full-time season, was selected as a member of the national team at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, won a gold medal, and received special military service exemption.

Kim Joo-won has been growing every year, but this season he is off to a somewhat slow start. Before today's game, he appeared in 37 games and posted a batting average of 0.188 (19 hits in 101 at-bats), 2 home runs, 11 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.615. He had the second-lowest batting average among the 64 batters who filled the required at-bats, following Kiwoom Choi Joo-hwan (0.182). There were no major mistakes in last year's improved defense, but his offense could hardly keep up.

NC coach Kang In-kwon issued a warning ahead of the season opening, saying, "Kim Joo-won needs to show more growth this year. We cannot give him leniency just because he is young." At the same time, he continued to let Kim Joo-won play to help him regain his senses, but in the end, he often ended up sitting on the bench behind backup shortstop Kim Han-byeol. Then, he regained his starting position due to Kim Han-byul's injury.

Even ahead of today’s game, Coach Kang diagnosed, “I don’t think I’ve recovered to 100% condition yet.” However, he said, “When I see him training, he is getting better, so my expectations are rising every time he goes to bat.” He went on to say, “I don’t have time to spare because I’m not getting results at bat.”

At the same time, Coach Kang said, "It seems like there have been ups and downs in my batting style this year. I made changes to my batting form, but the results are not coming, so I have a lot to think about and worry about." He gave confidence by saying, “I hope that as I accumulate at-bats in the first team, I will realize it myself and overcome it.”

And the home run that day was a blow to Kim Joo-won's frustration. He confessed, “I had been feeling frustrated in my heart for a while,” and “I felt good because that frustration disappeared when I hit a home run.” He nodded at Director Kang's words and said, "Because my record was not good, I was being chased without realizing it. So I think the director felt like he was impatient."

Kim Joo-won spared no effort to overcome this difficult time. He said, "When training, I paid more attention and worked harder. He also thought a lot about how to fight the pitcher at the plate." It was also helpful to talk a lot with coach Song Ji-man.

Kim Joo-won is going through a season full of twists and turns in his fourth year. He strengthened his resolve, saying, "It is natural that we have to do well. Now, rather than showing something, I think we should approach the season with the mindset of continuing to challenge ourselves."

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