Korea Uses Complicated Chart, Routine Sacrifice Fly to Advance to WBC Quarterfinals

Anyone who familiarized themselves with the World Baseball Classic tiebreaking procedures before this edition of the tournament began may have been operating on the belief that they understood them. But the first time they truly came into play may have all of us feeling a bit unsure.

Those procedures, again, are:

The team that won the games between the teams tied shall be given the higher position. If three or more teams are tied and one of those teams won its games against all other teams it is tied with, then it will be placed in the higher spot. Similarly, if one of those tied teams lost its games against all other teams it is tied with, then it will be placed in the lowest spot.
The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to the lowest quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in the games in that round between the teams tied.
The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to the lowest quotient of fewest earned runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in the games in that round between the teams tied.
The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to the highest batting average in games in that round between the teams tied.
Standings shall be determined by the drawing of lots, conducted by WBCI.

Simple, right?

So here are two things we know for sure. Korea will be advancing to the quarterfinal round in Miami after downing Australia, 7-2, in their Pool C finale on Monday. And it was very, very exciting even if some of the real-time calculations felt rather Byzantine.

Korea's win featured what will go down as the most celebrated and meaningful ninth-inning sacrifice fly to give someone a five-run cushion. It also featured this fan whose homemade chart explaining all the potential scenarios at play got an incredible amount of television time.

Cheers to a true World Baseball Classic legend pic.twitter.com/U2DTgPQCkF
— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) March 9, 2026

There were several different versions of the cheat sheet for understanding just what the heck was going on floating around out there. For instance, perhaps this clears it up a bit more.

Here's the Korea-Aus score chart. Korea is red, Australia is green and Taiwan is blue. pic.twitter.com/Jc2PmrpFLn
— Backbr88ker (@backbr88ker) March 9, 2026

Eight innings of drama resulted in Australia carrying a 6-2 lead into the ninth, meaning all they needed to do was to hold Korea scoreless and then nothing after that would matter—including losing the actual game. Jack O'Loughlin was sent out to the mound to post a clean frame and that task was made more difficult after a leadoff walk to Do Yeong Kim. Jahmai Jones then flew out to right field and O'Loughlin appeared to induce what looked to be a game-ending double play ball. Unfortunately for Australia, the pitcher deflected the ball and shortstop Jarryd Dale made both a physical and mental error by tossing the ball into right field.

HYUN MIN AHN DELIVERS 😮#WorldBaseballClassic pic.twitter.com/7H00urgoH9
— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 9, 2026

Hyun Min Ahn followed with a sacrifice fly to score Kim, making the score 7-2, a result that would give Korea the nod in the tiebreaking formulas. Australia could have once again changed all that in the bottm of the ninth but were unable to change the score.

With three more pools yet to be decided, there's a decent chance another tiebreaking maze will materialize over the next few days. And that's okay. Figuring out the state of play is part of what makes this tournament fun. We'll get there together.

The good news is the FS1 broadcast did an excellent job of keeping everyone in the loop and they'll surely do the same next time as well.

More MLB on Sports Illustrated