The Hanwha Eagles defeated the last-place Kiwoom Heroes and surged to first place. 'Ace' Cody Ponce threw a personal best fastball this season at 159 km/h, achieving the first-ever opening day starter 10-game winning streak in Hanwha's history.

Hanwha decorated their home game against Kiwoom in the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League with a commanding 10-4 victory at Hanwha Life Ballpark in Daejeon on the 22nd.

Starting pitcher Ponce pitched 5⅔ innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 walk, and striking out 12 with 2 earned runs (unearned), reaching 10 wins first in the league this season. In the third inning, a bench-clearing incident occurred as he engaged in a war of words with Kiwoom's Lim Ji-yeol, but Ponce continued to excel, posting a 10-game winning streak without a loss since opening day. This marks the seventh opening day starter 10-game winning streak in KBO League history, a first for a Hanwha pitcher.

Luis Liberato, who joined as a replacement foreign player for the injured Estevan Florial, had a strong debut as a batting second and center fielder, going 3 for 5 with 1 RBI, including a double. Chae Eun-seong and Lee Do-yoon also swung powerful bats, each hitting 3 hits.

That day at 3:33 p.m., Hanwha's 33rd home game of the season was sold out (17,000 people), and they firmly held onto first place with a record of 43 wins, 29 losses, and 1 tie (.597). The 10th place Kiwoom, with 2 consecutive losses, fell to a record of 21 wins, 53 losses, and 2 ties (.284).

Hanwha took the early lead from the bottom of the first inning. Lee Jin-young, who hit a center field single, was out attempting to steal second base, creating a two-out situation with no runners. However, Moon Hyun-bin hit a double over the head of Kiwoom's starter Raul Alcantara to get into scoring position. Following that, Roh Si-hwan scored by touching home on a right field single.

Hanwha's momentum continued into the bottom of the second inning. Leadoff batter Chae Eun-seong opened the inning with a double that hit the right monster wall, and during An Chi-hong's sacrifice bunt, Kiwoom catcher Kim Keon-hee threw to third, but the throw was late. After reaching first and third with no outs due to a fielder's choice, Lee Do-yoon added another run on a ground ball to second base, and in a continued one-out first and third situation, Choi Jae-hun's single to center field followed. Alcantara threw home, but as it veered sideways, third base runner Lee Do-yoon slid headfirst across home.

With the momentum, Hanwha solidified their lead with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. With two outs and a runner on first, Lee Jin-young exploded with a two-run homer to left field. He hit the second pitch, a 137 km/h forkball, over the left field wall. The distance was 125 meters, marking his seventh home run of the season.

Continuing the rally, a right-center hit by Liberato and a left-center double by Moon Hyun-bin connected to set up two outs with runners on first and second. Roh Si-hwan then delivered a one-RBI single to left field, while the next batter, Chae Eun-seong, hit another right monster wall double, bringing the score to 7-0. This also marked the 46th career 800th RBI record in KBO League history.

In the bottom of the fifth inning against Kiwoom's left-handed Jung Se-young, Lee Do-yoon hit a right field single, and Choi Jae-hun hit a left-center one-RBI double, while Liberato added another one-RBI double that fell to the right of center field, sealing the game.

Liberato had a sensational debut in the KBO League, going 3 for 4 with a double and 1 RBI. Chae Eun-seong and Lee Do-yoon each also had 3 hits. Lee Jin-young, Moon Hyun-bin, Roh Si-hwan, and Choi Jae-hun recorded 2 hits each, as a total of 7 batters bombed the Kiwoom mound.

With enthusiastic offensive support, Ponce went 5⅔ innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 walk, and striking out 12 with 2 earned runs (unearned), achieving his 10th win of the season. With a total of 96 pitches thrown, he hit a top speed of 159 km/h, averaging 155 km/h with his fastball (45 pitches), mixing in changeups (27), curves (14), sliders (9), and two-seam fastballs (1). There were 2 earned runs, but due to defensive errors, his earned run average dropped from 2.16 to 2.01. He reclaimed the top spot in this category from SSG's Drew Anderson (2.05).

In the top of the third inning, before throwing the second pitch to Lim Ji-yeol with 2 outs and a runner on first, there was also a war of words. After receiving a warning for pitch clock delays from the home plate umpire Moon Dong-kyun, in a situation where the play call did not come, he quickly threw the pitch, leading to a confrontation with Lim Ji-yeol, causing a bench clearing. In the chaotic situation, Ponce maintained his composure, striking out Lim Ji-yeol with a swinging strikeout. After finishing the inning, Ponce smiled confidently as he struck out an impressive 12 batters through the 6th inning with 2 outs. He widened the gap with second-place Anderson (128 strikeouts), leading the category with 141 strikeouts.

With this, Ponce set the record for the seventh all-time opening day starter 10-game winning streak in KBO League history. This streak follows Hyun-jin Ryu's 5-game win streak in 2009, with 14 wins for Hyundai's Jeong Min-tae (2003), Hector Noesi of KIA (2017), Seth Frankoff of Doosan (13-game win streak in 2018), William Cuevas of KT (12-game win streak in 2023), then Park Myung-hwan of Doosan and Adam Plutko of LG (both with 10-game win streaks in 2023). This is the first time for Hanwha, with Ryu's previous record being a maximum of 5 wins.

On the other hand, Kiwoom's starter Alcantara collapsed after pitching 4 innings, allowing 13 hits (1 home run), not allowing any walks, striking out 2, and giving up 7 earned runs, marking his second loss of the season (2 wins). His earned run average rose from 1.35 to 3.75.

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