CHANGWON-SI, South Korea (Interstat) — The Shinsegae Landers erupted for four runs in the fourth inning and broke the game open with a five-run ninth, cruising to an 11-3 victory over the NC Dinos in Korea Baseball Organization action Saturday at Masan Baseball Stadium.

A crowd of 14,888 watched the Landers (10-7) batter Dinos pitching for eight hits, with center fielder Choi Ji-hoon delivering the decisive blow — a three-run homer in the fourth — to back a strong start from winning pitcher Kim Keon-woo. The loss dropped the home team Dinos to 7-10.

The game’s pivotal sequence came in the top of the fourth inning with the game scoreless. Landers veteran Choi Jeong worked a one-out walk off NC starter Curtis Taylor. After Kim Jae-hwan walked and Oh Tae-gon struck out, Choi Ji-hoon stepped in. On a 1-1 offering from Taylor, Choi launched a towering drive to right field that cleared the wall, staking Shinsegae to a 3-0 lead.

The Landers were not done. Kim Seong-uk was hit by a pitch, and Cho Hyeong-woo was also hit, loading the bases. That ended Taylor’s afternoon after 3 2/3 innings, in which he allowed two hits and four earned runs while striking out five. Reliever Lim Ji-min entered and promptly gave up a single to Jeong Jun-jae, which scored Kim Seong-uk. The four-run outburst gave Shinsegae a commanding lead it would not relinquish.

Kim Keon-woo earned the win, improving to 2-0. He was effective over 5 2/3 innings, allowing three earned runs on three hits while striking out four. His only trouble came in the bottom of the third when the Dinos scratched across two runs. After hitting Choi Jeong-won and walking Kim Ju-won, Kim surrendered a two-run single to Park Min-woo that cut the early deficit to 4-2.

Taylor took the loss for NC, falling to 1-2 on the season.

Shinsegae added a solo run in the fifth on a towering solo home run to center field by Choi Jeong, his first of the year, making it 5-2.

The Dinos answered with a solo shot of their own in the sixth, as Lee Woo-sung took Kim Keon-woo deep to left field, trimming the lead to 5-3. That was the last run NC would muster.

The Landers added an unearned run in the eighth. Oh Tae-gon was hit by a pitch, advanced to third on a fielder’s choice and an error by second baseman Park Min-woo, and scored on a Kim Seong-uk groundout.

Shinsegae then put the game completely out of reach in the ninth, sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring five runs on four hits and two walks against the NC bullpen. The key hit was a two-run single by Kim Jae-hwan, followed by an RBI single from Oh Tae-gon and a sacrifice fly from Kim Seong-uk.

The Landers’ bullpen combination of Kim Min, Lee Ro-un, Jeon Young-jun and Noh Kyung-eun provided 3 1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit relief to seal the victory.

For NC, reliever Bae Jae-whan turned in a notable performance, striking out all three batters he faced in a perfect inning of work.

The game time was 3 hours, 28 minutes. The teams will conclude their series Sunday at the same venue.

The victory moved Shinsegae three games above .500 and continued a positive trend after taking two of three from the Doosan Bears earlier in the week. The loss extended a difficult stretch for the Dinos, who have now dropped three of their last four games.

According to pregame projections, the result was an upset. Interstat’s ELO system had given the Dinos a 51% probability to win, and their game simulator had predicted a narrow 3-2 Shinsegae victory. The Landers, installed as 1.5-run favorites, easily covered the spread, and the combined 14 runs went over the posted over/under line of 10.