TAIPEI: South Korea defeated Cuba 8-4 Thursday for its first win at the World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 in Taipei, bouncing back after a dispiriting loss to Chinese Taipei in the tournament opener the previous day. According to Yonhap News Agency, Kim Do-yeong, the leading MVP candidate in the Korea Baseball Organization this year, blasted two home runs, including a grand slam off starter Livan Moinelo in the six-run second inning in the Group B game at Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium in the Taiwanese capital. South Korean starter Gwak Been tossed four shutout innings and struck out five. South Korea will next take on Japan on Friday at Taipei Dome. The first pitch is 6 p.m. local time, or 7 p.m. in South Korea. The rivalry showdown will be followed by games against the Dominican Republic on Saturday and Australia on Monday. The top two teams from Group B after round-robin action will qualify for the Super Round, with the two best teams from Group A joining them. Following the 6-3 defeat at the hands of Chinese Taipei, South Korea will likely have to win out to have a shot at reaching the Super Round. Japan is considered one of the title favorites, despite missing its major league stars such as Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. South Korea has lost to Japan in their past six meetings at international baseball tournaments. After South Korea managed just three hits against Chinese Taipei in Wednesday's loss, manager Ryu Joong-il inserted four new faces into his starting lineup. Notably, Na Seung-yeup, who smoked a pinch-hit solo shot in the seventh inning Wednesday, got the start as designated hitter. And three other new members contributed to the team's six-run explosion in the bottom of the second against Moinelo, the reigning Pacific League ERA champion for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. With two outs, Moon Bo-gyeong, dropped down to No. 7 spot, doubled to left-center gap. Then Park Seong-han, making his first start, lined a single to left field to keep the inning going. Park then stole seco nd base to give South Korea two men in scoring position. New center fielder Choi Won-jun hit a sharp grounder to the hole on the left for an infield single that scored Moon for a 1-0 lead. Shortstop Erisbel Arruebarruena kept the ball on the infield with a diving grab but had no play at home. Choi also stole second base before leadoff man Hong Chang-ki drew a walk to load the bases. After a visit from his pitching coach Pedro Luis Lazo, Moinelo nailed Shin Min-jae, South Korea's new No. 2 hitter, with his first pitch to push across another run. Kim then landed the big blow with his grand slam, putting South Korea up 6-0. With Moinelo laboring, Kim ambushed him on a first-pitch fastball and drove it deep into left. Left fielder Roel Santos barely moved as the no-doubter homer sailed over his head. That six-run advantage was plenty for Gwak, who tossed four shutout innings. He had all four of his pitches working, striking out five batters with a mix of four-seam fastball, changeup, slider and curveball. Cuba went down quietly in the first two frames. In the top third, Cuba had runners at the corners with two outs for former big leaguer Yoan Moncada, but Gwak got him to fly out to center field to end that threat. After pitching around a walk and a single in the fourth, Gwak got himself into trouble by walking the first two batters of the fifth inning. After giving Andrys Perez a free pass, Gwak shook his right hand repeatedly with an apparent finger issue. So Hyeong-jun took over from Gwak, but after getting Santos to ground out to first, So hit Moncada to load the bases. So then escaped the jam by getting Arruebarruena to fly out to left field. After So, left-hander Kwak Do-gyu got the third out of the top sixth and stranded a runner at first. South Korea tacked on the seventh run in the bottom sixth with Choi Won-jun's two-out single against new pitcher Pavel Bruce. Cuba loaded the bases with no out in the top seventh, thanks to an infield single and consecutive errors by South Korea, but eked out just one run off reliever Lee Young-ha. Roberto Baldoquin only hit a shallow fly to right field, not deep enough for Andrys Perez to score, and Arruebarruena struck out swinging. Alfredo Despaigne then hit a chopper back up the middle and the ball glanced off Lee's glove. It slowed the ball down and allowed lead-footed Despaigne to beat the throw by second baseman Shin Min-jae for an RBI infield single. Kim Do-yeong then restored a seven-run lead for South Korea with a solo home run off Pavel Bruce in the bottom seventh. Cuba made the game more interesting by scoring three times in the top eighth. Yoelkis Guibert smacked a two-run homer off new pitcher Kim Taek-yeon and Rafael Vinales knocked Kim out of the game with a solo shot that immediately followed. Jung Hai-young came on to put out the fire, and Park Yeong-hyun slammed the door shut with two strikeouts in the ninth.