Another good news has been delivered to the Hanwha Eagles, who have won seven consecutive games. An Chi-hong (35) who was excluded from the main league entry after suffering from poor batting performance in the early days of this season is reviving his sense of hitting in the Futures League.
Hanwha won 7-1 against the NC Dinos in the regular season of the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 20th, winning its seventh consecutive game of the season and maintaining its sole second place in the league.
Starting pitcher Cody Ponce displayed both good pitching and the batters' concentration. Ponce pitched seven perfect innings with 13 strikeouts against the NC Dinosaurs. He had only one hit and no walks.
The batters did not stay put. Noh Si-hwan, the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the second inning, hit a solo shot off the opponent team's starting pitcher Lee Yong-chan. It was Noh's 100th homerun in his career. Then captain Chae Eun-seong got on base with a double, and Choi Jae-hoon brought in a hit to the right, scoring an additional point.
Hanwha's extra point came in the fifth inning. Choi Jae-hoon and Ha Joo-seok got on base with consecutive hits, targeting NC's changed pitcher Kim Jin-ho. Kim Tae-yeon, who was trying to bunt, was replaced by a ball on his finger, but even Choi In-ho, who came in as a pinch hitter, hit a hit, creating a full base chance with no outs. Later, Moon Hyun-bin's two-run timely hit was hit, and even pinch runner Lee Won-seok, who was on third base, homered to widen the gap to 5-0.
Hanwha also made a bases-loaded chance with Ha Joo-seok's hit and consecutive walks by Lee Won-seok and Esteban Floral in the seventh inning, and Moon Hyun-bin added a timely two-run hit, bringing the victory completely. On the other hand, NC scored a difficult point against Kim Seung-il, who took over the mound after Ponce went down, but failed to score any more additional points.
Hanwha, which has elevated the mood by winning seven consecutive starts including Moon Dong-ju, Ponce, Ryan Weiss, Ryu Hyun-jin, Um Sang-baek, and again Moon Dong-ju and Ponce, is playing "happiness baseball" in combination with the revival of Floral, Noh Si-hwan and Chae Eun-seong, who were sluggish in the early days of the season. And another piece of good news came here. It is news of Ahn Chi-hong's rebound from "7.2 billion FA." 안전놀이터
An Chi-hong, who was notified of his second leg on the 7th with a batting average falling to 0.067 at the beginning of this season, fired a clear signal of revival in his third appearance at the Futures. He started as the third hitter and designated hitter in the 2025 Mediheal KBO Futures League KT Wiz match at Iksan Baseball Stadium on the 20th, and made three hits in five at-bats (one home run) with three RBIs and two runs.
An Chi-hong, who stepped down with a mistake in the first and third innings, continued his chance by hitting a hit in the third at-bat with no outs and no outs in the fifth inning. In the top of the sixth inning when his team was leading 7-5, he hit a two-run homer and added an RBI by hitting a timely hit in the eighth inning with no outs and runners on the first and second bases. With the game, An Chi-hong's Futures performance marked a three-game batting average of 0.455 (5 hits in 11 at-bats) with one homer, three RBIs and three runs scored OPS of 1.273.
Hanwha's batting average, which remained at the bottom of the league, has already risen to the sixth place (0.246). If An Chi-hong, who has recovered his form, joins the team, the synergy effect of the batters will likely be even more enormous.