Kang Baek-ho, the first overall pick in last year's Korea Baseball Organization rookie draft, hit the first home run of the league's 2018 season on Saturday.

The 18-year-old left fielder for the KT Wiz hit a solo shot off Hector Noesi of the Kia Tigers in the top of the third inning at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul. This was Kang's first career KBO at-bat.

Facing a 20-game winner from last season, Kang worked the count to full before jumping on the sixth pitch of the at-bat and sending it over the left field wall. The left fielder batted eighth.

The solo blast cut KT's deficit to 2-1.

Kang is the second KBO rookie to go deep in his first career at-bat on the Opening Day, following Cho Kyung-hwan of the Lotte Giants in 1988.

(Yonhap)