Hailong Sun

Hailong Sun (孫海龍)

Biographical Information[edit]

Hailong Sun pitched for the Shanghai Eagles before joining the Chinese national team for the 2023 World Baseball Classic; he had just turned 19 when the tourney began; only Hao Zhang was younger for China. ^[1] He debuted in the opener against tournament champion Japan, relieving Weiyi Wang in the 4th with a 3-0 deficit, a man on and one out. He retired Munetaka Murakami, hit Masataka Yoshida and walked Kazuma Okamoto to load the bases but Shugo Maki hit into an inning-ending force. In the 5th, he struck out Sosuke Genda and walked Takuya Kai then Lars Nootbaar hit into a double play to end the inning. After China closed it to 3-1, he began the 6th by whiffing Kensuke Kondoh but walked Shohei Ohtani. After a wild pitch, he intentionally walked Murakami and Changlong Su bailed him out. With two shutout innings, the youngster was China's top hurler of the day. His other outing was versus South Korea, when he replaced Xiang Wang in the 4th with a 12-2 deficit, two on and no out. He allowed hits to Hae-min Park and Hye-seong Kim to score a run then walked Byung-ho Park to force in another. He got Ha-seong Kim to pop up and whiffed Baek-ho Kang. Kun-woo Park smacked a grand slam for a 18-2 lead and Ji-hwan Oh singled before he retired Ji-young Lee to fly out. Zhang relieved him in the fifth. He tied Jian Yi for 5th in the WBC in walks. ^[2]