SSG Landers Jihoon Choi (28) led his team's first winning series of the season with two consecutive game-winning hits.안전놀이터

Jihoon Choi started the home game against the Lotte Giants in the "2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League" held at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Monday, and led the team to a 5-2 victory by posting two hits, one walk and one RBI from four times at bat. SSG defeated Lotte for two consecutive days to secure its first winnings series of the season.

Since the season's opening, Jihoon Choi has displayed an unusual batting performance. Jihoon Choi also had the finishing hit with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first inning in Tuesday's game. Even after hitting the homer, the batter continued to hit the ball. "Coach Lee (Lee Sung-yong) boldly swung ahead of the hitting point because he thought he was hitting the ball too far these days," Jihoon Choi said. "If he maintains the batting balance, he can expect a double-digit home run." Lee, who gave him a one-point lesson, also said, "Through the game yesterday (26th), I felt that (Choi) Ji-hoon will continue to make good batting performances."

Lee's hunch was not wrong. Jihoon Choi also showed off a good batting performance at Tuesday's game. At the bottom of the fourth inning with a 1-0 lead, he took the lead as a batter and had a heavy hit. At the bottom of the seventh inning with no outs and runners on the first base, when the score was 2-2, Park Joon-woo, the fourth pitcher of the Lotte Giants, targeted a high course near the strike zone, but his Jihoon Choi was weak regardless of height when it came to balls last year. This time, however, he hit a double that stretched to the warning track, showing good batting performance.

He was also outstanding. Lee, who wanted both batting and pioneering skills from Jihoon Choi, would be pleased with the result. "Ji Hoon is a player who can display both batting and pioneering skills without having to hit defensively just to forcefully draw a walk," Lee said before the game. As if to live up to the expectations, Jihoon Choi calmly picked out the catch of Lotte starter Na Gyun-an, who was trying to pull out the bat with a superb fork ball in the bottom of the fifth inning with one out and runners on the first base, when the score was 2-2. "Ji Hoon showed great performance as a leadoff," Lee said after the game.