“Little Lee Jung-hoo.”
Kim Min-seok led his team to a 14-3 victory in the final home game against the Doosan Bears at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 11th, with four hits in six at-bats, two RBIs and one run scored.
It was Kim Min-seok, a high school graduate who had been sluggish with a batting average of 1601 (10 hits in 62 at-bats) since September. Kim Min-seok was having a meaningful season as a high school graduate this year, although he was recently embroiled in rumors. He had 96 hits before the game, leaving four to record 100 hits for high school graduates. On July 22, he was recording one four-hit game against Sajik Kiwoom, but it was questionable whether he could record four hits at once.
However, Kim Min-seok made four hits in the final home game of his debut season, achieving his eighth career high school rookie record of 100 hits. He hit his first at-bat hit to the right in the second inning, a two-run timely hit to the right in the third inning, a heavy hit in the fourth inning, and an infield hit to the third base in the sixth inning, creating his second four-hit game. In other words, he reached his first history as a Lotte player. It was a milestone that even Lee Dae-ho, the only Lotte hitter to have a permanent number, failed to do.
Prior to Kim Min-seok, LG Kim Jae-hyun (134) in 1994, Samsung Lee Seung-yeop (104) in 1995, Hyundai Park Jin-man (102) in 1996, Haitai Jung Sung-hoon (107) in 1999, Nexen Lee Jung-hoo (179) in 2017, and KT Kang Baek-ho (153) in 2018 set the record. This year, prior to Kim Min-seok, Hanwha Moon Hyun-bin achieved the record of 100 hits for the seventh high school graduate in history against Daejeon NC on the 2nd.
Acting coach Lee Jong-un said, “Congratulations on rookie Kim Min-seok’s 100 hits. I hope he will continue to grow and become a top-class KBO league player in the future,” he said, congratulating Kim Min-seok’s record.
After the game, Kim Min-seok said, “I think the season really passed fast. “The biggest thing about filling 100 hits was being able to play baseball without getting hurt a season, and it’s thanks to the coaches and coaches who trusted me and sent me to the game,” he said. “I felt a lot of things and lacked a lot this year. “I thought a lot that I should supplement the finishing camp a lot in the future and play baseball in a better way next year,” he said, expressing his impressions of 100 hits.