Independent Baseball Team Gyeonggi League 8-Month Journey Concludes... Yeoncheon Miracle Wins Championship

Players participating in the Gyeonggi-do League of the independent baseball team held a closing ceremony and awards ceremony on the 3rd, cheering for next year with a shout of fighting.

Gyeonggi Province held the ‘2023 Independent Baseball Team Gyeonggi League Closing Ceremony and Awards Ceremony’ on the 3rd at the WI Convention inside Suwon World Cup Stadium.

This year’s Independent Baseball Team Gyeonggi League began its season on March 21 with the opening game between Seongnam MacPies and Yeoncheon Miracle, and continued its eight-month journey until the fifth game of the final series on October 11 between Gwangju Yeoncheon Miracle and Cheon Seongnam MacPies.

A total of seven teams, including newly established teams such as Suwon Fine Eggs, competed for the championship cup. Yeoncheon Miracle, who finished first in the regular season, defeated Seongnam MacPies 3 wins to 2 losses in the championship final to become champions for the second consecutive year. The final rankings were 3rd place Paju Challengers, 4th place Gapyeong Whales, 5th place Suwon Fine Eggs, 6th place Goyang Winners, and 7th place Pocheon Monsters.

At the awards ceremony, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award went to Choi Jong-wan of Yeoncheon Miracle, who contributed the most to his team’s championship by winning three games as the winning pitcher in the final league championship series.

Additionally, awards were presented for the Golden Glove in each position, including pitcher Lee Do-hyun (Paju Challengers) and catcher Kim Ji-hyun (Goyang Winners).

The winning team, Yeoncheon Miracle, received a prize of 20 million KRW and a trophy; the runner-up, Seongnam MacPies, received 10 million KRW and a trophy; and the third-place team, Paju Challengers, received 6 million KRW and a trophy.

Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon said in his congratulatory speech, "The Independent Baseball Team Gyeonggi League is a pride of Gyeonggi Province and best exemplifies the spirit of ‘Opportunity Capital Gyeonggi.’ I congratulate and encourage the seven teams that completed the eight-month league and promise to always support them."

Independent baseball teams are teams operated separately from professional leagues, mainly composed of players who have not advanced to professional leagues or have been released from professional teams, who gather to form teams and play games.

Gyeonggi Province launched the Independent Baseball Team Gyeonggi League in April 2019, the first of its kind nationwide, and has continued to support it for four years.

Meanwhile, since the league’s inception, many players have advanced to professional teams, including infielder Hwang Young-mook, who was drafted by the Hanwha Eagles in this year’s KBO rookie draft, with a total of 14 players joining professional teams.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.