Changwon: The NC Dinos claimed the final postseason spot in South Korean baseball by winning their regular-season finale at home Saturday. The Dinos defeated the SSG Landers 7-1 at Changwon NC Park in Changwon, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to finish in fifth place in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) regular season with a win-loss-tie record of 71-67-6.

According to Yonhap News Agency, by winning their last nine games of the regular season, the Dinos fended off the KT Wiz, who finished a half game back at 71-68-5. The Wiz had barely kept their hopes alive by battling for a 6-6 tie against the Hanwha Eagles in their regular-season finale Friday, when a loss would have knocked them out of the race and given the Dinos the fifth seed. The Wiz were down 6-2 entering the bottom of the ninth inning and then scored four runs — including two with two outs — to send the game to extra innings and then emerge with a tie.

The Dinos needed a tie or a win Saturday to punch their first postseason ticket since 2023, and took care of business with the comfortable win in front of a sellout crowd of 17,983. The Dinos took a 1-0 lead in the bottom first thanks to Park Kun-woo’s RBI single. Kim Whee-jip then extended that lead to 4-0 with a three-run blast in the bottom second.

The Dinos kept piling on in the bottom third, with Lee Woo-sung’s RBI double and Seo Ho-cheol’s follow-up single pushing the lead to 6-0. Lee collected his second RBI of the game with a double in the bottom fifth, helping the Dinos build a 7-0 lead. An Sang-hyun’s solo shot put the Landers on the board in the top sixth, but they didn’t score again the rest of the way.

Dinos starter Riley Thompson held the Landers to a run over 5 1/3 innings and struck out seven for the 17th win of the season, tying Cody Ponce of the Hanwha Eagles for the KBO lead. As the fifth seed, the Dinos will take on the fourth-ranked Samsung Lions in the wild card round starting Monday at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, 235 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

As the higher seed, the Lions will only need a tie to advance to the next round and will have two opportunities to do so. The lower-ranked Dinos must win two straight games to move on.