The South Korean baseball league set a single-day attendance record for a preseason Sunday, breaking its own record set from the previous day.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced that the five exhibition games on Sunday drew a combined 71,288 fans.
On Saturday, the first day of the preseason, 67,264 fans had been on hand, breaking the previous mark of 66,785 fans set on March 22, 2015. The new record only lasted a day.
The Hanwha Eagles hosted the Doosan Bears at their alternate home park, Cheongju Baseball Stadium, in front of a sellout 9,000 fans on Saturday. The Bears prevailed 4-2.
The Samsung Lions and the SSG Landers played before a packed house of 23,063 fans at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu. The stadium has a capacity of 24,000 but the Lions only made 23,063 seats available due to maintenance work. The Lions delivered a 7-0 win.
At 22,990-seat Sajik Baseball Stadium in the southeastern port city of Busan, the Lotte Giants closed off outfield seats for the preseason, leaving 17,890 available for fans. And they filled those seats Sunday for a game against the Kia Tigers. The two teams ended in a scoreless tie.
At Changwon NC Park in Changwon, just west of Busan, the home team NC Dinos beat the Kiwoom Heroes 7-2 with 7,278 fans in attendance.
The KT Wiz defeated the LG Twins 9-4 before 14,057 fans at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, just south of Seoul.
Weekday preseason games are free. Teams charge only small amounts for weekend games.
The preseason will wrap up on March 18 and the regular season will begin on March 22.
Last year, the KBO set its regular-season attendance record by drawing just over 10.88 million fans, surpassing the previous record by some 2.4 million.
The pitch clock is in play starting this season, and there were three violations, including one by a hitter, over the first weekend of the preseason.
With the pitch timer, pitchers must begin their delivery within 20 seconds with the bases empty and within 25 seconds with runners aboard. Catchers must be set up behind the plate by the nine-second mark, and hitters must be in the box and alert to the pitcher by the eight-second mark.
A violation will result in a ball for a pitcher and a strike for a hitter.
Landers reliever Noh Kyung-eun became the first violator during Saturday's game against the Lions and was charged with a ball against infielder Yang Do-geun.
Giants infielder Han Tae-yang became the first hitter to be called for a violation during Sunday's game. Also on Sunday, Wiz starter Oh Won-seok was charged with a ball when he failed to make his pitch against Austin Dean of the Twins within 25 seconds. Oh ended up walking Dean.
