Taiwan captain Ngayaw Ake (also known as Lin Chih-sheng, 林智勝) led by example when he blasted a three-run homer against Cuba pitcher Danny Betancourt in the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie to lead the hosts to a 4-1 victory over Cuba in World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier 12 action at the Taichung Intercontinental Stadium last night.
It was a night to remember, marking a rare victory against the Red Lightning.
Taiwan last beat Cuba in the 2006 Intercontinental Cup. Since then, Cuba had recorded five straight wins against Taiwan in major international competitions.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
Taiwan opened the scoring in the second frame, when outfielder Yang Dai-kang (陽岱鋼) hit a grounder up the middle to drive Chen Yung-chi (陳鏞基) home.
A pitching duel then ensued between both teams’ starters — Taiwan’s Sung Chia-hao (宋家豪) and Cuba’s Yoanni Yera — with the hosts hanging on to a slender one-run lead.
Cuba leveled the game at 1-1 in the sixth inning, when Cuba outfielder Alfredo Despaigne hit a bouncer that Taiwan shortstop Kuo Yen-wen (郭嚴文) could not handle, allowing runner Yulieski Gurriel to come home from third base.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
That set the stage for Lin’s heroics in the eighth, with his third homer in three straight games for the hosts to chalk up an important victory.
In other results from last night, Canada blanked Italy 4-0 in Group A, while South Korea edged Mexico 4-3 and Japan overwhelmed the US 10-2 in the showdown between the two top teams in Group B.
The US led 2-1 until the fifth frame, but in subsequent innings the Samurai Warriors exploded with long-ball firepower to take the victory.
With two men on base, slugger Nakata Sho struck a towering shot that landed in the seats for a three-run homer in the sixth. Then with bases loaded, Japan captain Matsuda Nobuhiro clobbered a grand slam homer over the left-field fence in the seventh inning to ensure the win.
In yesterday’s afternoon action, the Netherlands piled on runs early to go 8-0 by the second inning, and coasted to an 11-7 triumph over Puerto Rico.
The other afternoon contest saw a spirited comeback victory by Venezuela in an 8-6 triumph over the Dominican Republic.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
HIGH-TECH DEAL: Chipmakers that expand in the US would be able to import up to 2.5 times their new capacity with no extra tariffs during an approved construction period Taiwan aims to build a “democratic” high-tech supply chain with the US and form a strategic artificial intelligence (AI) partnership under the new tariffs deal it sealed with Washington last week, Taipei’s top negotiator in the talks said yesterday. US President Donald Trump has pushed Taiwan, a major producer of semiconductors which runs a large trade surplus with the US, to invest more in the US, specifically in chips that power AI. Under the terms of the long-negotiated deal, chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) that expand US production would incur a lower tariff on semiconductors or related manufacturing
RSS