S. Korea`s Kia Tigers loses to Japan`s Yomiuri Giants in championship match

SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) -- Kia Tigers of South Korea lost to Japan's Yomiuri
Giants 4-9 in the Japan-South Korea club championship match held at Big N Stadium
in the southern Japanese city of Nagasaki on Saturday.
Kia Tigers, this year's Korean Series champion, went ahead with three runs,
helped by two timely hits by Na Ji-wan, but the Giants, this year's Japan Series
champion, overtook the Koreans, helped by Michihiro Ogasawara's solo homer in the
sixth inning and Shinnosuke Abe's three-run homer in the seventh inning. The
Giants scored four more runs in the seventh inning and one more in the ninth
inning.
In 2005-2008, top teams from South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan contested at
the annual Asia Series, but this year, two teams from South Korea and Japan held
the title match.
South Korean professional baseball teams are partly named after their corporate
sponsors. The Tigers, based in the southwestern city of Gwangju, were sold to
Kia, South Korea's second-largest automaker, by Haetae, a confectionery maker, in
2001.
The Giants are owned by the Yomiusi Shimbun newspaper group.
The winner of the championship will receive 20 million yen, and the loser 5
million yen.
ylee@yna.co.kr
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