NC Dinos' starter Koo Chang-mo has been named South Korean baseball's top player for May.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Monday that Koo earned the first Player of the Month award for the 2020 season, after going 4-0 with a 0.51 ERA and 38 strikeouts in five starts during May. Koo tied Eric Jokisch of the Kiwoom Heroes for wins in May and led the league in ERA and strikeouts.

This was Koo's first monthly player award in his five-year career.

Koo earned 27 out of 30 votes cast by the media, and collected 176,113 votes out of 229,971 from fans, for a converted total of 83.29 points.

LG Twins' slugger Robert Ramos finished a distant second with 11.24 points after garnering three media votes and 28,681 fan votes.

Behind Koo's excellent pitching, the Dinos jumped out to a 17-3 start, the best opening 20-game stretch in league history.

Koo will receive 2 million won ($1,660) in prize money and a gold bar worth 600,000 won, courtesy of the league's title sponsor, Shinhan Bank.

The bank will donate 1 million won to Koo's middle school, Duksu Middle School. (Yonhap)