INTERCONTINENTAL STADIUM. Cuba edged Chinese Taipei 1-0 with a walk-off single by Yusnier Diaz Thursday night at the Intercontinental Stadium in Taichung, to go 2-1 in the semi-finals round robin of the XXVI 18U baseball World Cup. The Asians are now 1-2.
Lefthanders Ariel Diaz (1-0, 0.61 ERA) and Lin Cheng Hsien, who made his first appearance in the tournament tonight, were the starting pitchers; while they literally starred in the game, both teams had also some occasions and some key plays.
The host team’s catcher, Chiang Min-Hao, delivered a couple of perfect assist and caught stealing Robert in the second and Arozarena in the third.
In the third, leftfielder Yusnier Diaz assisted to home to Rojas to get Chen Chung Yu who was trying to score from second on a single.
Cuba was the first to reach third with Rojas, in the fifth, while in the following inning was Wu Kuo Hao to get closer to score, but his attempt to reach home was frustrated by a perfect combination delivered by the Caribbean rightfielder Julio Martinez, first baseman Perez and catcher Rojas.
Chinese Taipei put a man on third in the seventh, after a wild pitch by Diaz, but Liu Tzu Chuan could not bat him in.
Both starters were substituted in the eighth, Diaz (who had allowed 7 hits, 3 walks and struck out 7) by Aldo Conrado and Lin (4 hits, 1 walk and 6Ks in 7.0) by Sung Wen Hua.
In the bottom of the ninth, Perez reached first on an error by third baseman Yang Chia Wei, Robert pushed him to second with a sacrifice bunt and Mesa was intentionally walked before the change on the mound.
Yusnier Diaz hit the second pitch of Yin De Rong to the left, to get a single that sent Perez home to give the game an end.
