Lee Seung-jin, the first native champion of the PBA season, is thrilled to win his first PBA title in seven years. Beat Choi Sung-won to win the fourth tour of the 2025-2026 season

Sep 09, 2025

Lee Seung-jin, who won the fourth PBA tour in the 2025-2026 season, is taking a commemorative photo with a trophy after the award ceremony. Photo courtesy =PBA

"I didn't know this day would come to me..."

'Veteran'Lee Seung-jin lifted his first professional baseball PBA championship in seven years.

Lee Seung-jin beat Choi Sung-won (15-12, 15-10, 15-4, 9-15, 15-11) in the fourth tour of the 2025-2026 season at Goyang Kintex PBA Stadium' in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on the night of the 8th.

With this, Lee Seung-jin lifted his first trophy in seven years since participating in the PBA Tour in 2019, making him the 24th PBA winner of all time. In addition, he won his first championship of the season as a domestic player, changing the flow of the winner, which was dominated by foreign players (Murat Nagy Choclu, David Martinez, and Mori Yusuke) from the opening game.

With this victory, Lee Seung-jin added 100 million won in prize money, jumping from 13th place (10 million won) to 1st place (110 million won) in the season. On the other hand, Choi Sung-won, who tried to win his second career championship in a year and 10 months, sadly suffered at the threshold of winning.

Nguyen Kuok Nguyen (Vietnam, Hana Card) who recorded 3.214 in average against Park Ji-ho, the 128th player in the tournament, won the 'Welcome Top Ranking' given to the player with the highest average score in one game. In addition, the 'Best Skin Award' selected by the votes of fans who visited PBA Stadium went to Kim Young-won (Harim). Kim Young-won received a cosmetics set worth 1 million won.

Choi Sung-won and Lee Seung-jin (from left) are banking to cover the first ball in the final of the fourth PBA Tour in the 2025-2026 season. Photo courtesy =PBA

At the beginning of the final, the two players carefully explored. There was a short-handed fight rather than a cool long shot. Lee Seung-jin calmly scored for six innings, reaching the 10-point mark first, and filling five remaining points until 12 innings to take the lead to 15-12.

In the second set, Lee Seung-jin led 6-3 by making only three bank shots through four innings, and led 13-10 until 10 innings. Immediately in the next inning, he also connected the attack opportunity with a bank shot to end the set 15-10. The third set was similar. While Choi Sung-won's attack missed slightly and failed to score multiple points, Lee Seung-jin steadily scored, winning the third set 15-4 and approaching the championship.

Choi Sung-won also did not easily back down. After tying the game at the beginning of the fourth set, trailing 7-9, Choi came from behind to win the game 15-9 with four points in the fifth inning and two points in the sixth inning. With this momentum, Choi Sung-won seemed to win another set by scoring seven consecutive points from the first pitch in the fifth set. However, with a 9-2 lead, he failed to confirm the victory. He added one run to four and five innings to make it 11-2.

From then on, Lee Seung-jin began to chase. Lee Seung-jin scored six points in five innings following three runs in four innings, quickly finishing 11-11 and taking over the offensive right when Choi Sung-won hit a ball in the sixth inning and finished the game with a bank shot following three consecutive runs. In the end, Lee Seung-jin won the fifth set with 15-11, ending the final match.

Lee Seung-jin, who has been on the PBA stage steadily since the 2019 professional baseball season, is a professional baseball player representing Daegu Metropolitan City. There has been no noticeable performance in the previous six seasons, and rather, he has to survive three times at Cue School and worry about relegation.

Lee Seung-jin, who won the fourth PBA tour in the 2025-2026 season, is delighted with the trophy after the award ceremony. Photo courtesy =PBA

However, it has changed significantly in its seventh year. It reached the semifinals in the season opener (Woori Financial Capital Championship). He failed to go to the finals after losing to Daniel Sanchez (Spain, Welcome Savings Bank), but he gained momentum by achieving his best performance on the professional stage, and eventually reached the top of the tournament in his 49th attempt, opening his second heyday.

Immediately after winning the championship, Lee Seung-jin said, `I'm so happy. I never thought this day would come to me. The happiest day of my life " I don't know if I'll be here again, but it's okay even if I don't win. I'm just the happiest and most enjoyable when I play billiards."

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.