Photo: Boris Luis Cabrera.
The wasps of Santiago de Cuba managed to recover after more than 20 days of inactivity and dominated by force some isolated pirate fighters, to reach 41 victories in the season and to be placed just a step away from becoming the eighth guest at the Cuban ball playoff festival.
Eriberto Rosales’s troops had to use their heavy artillery to defeat rivals who planted themselves fiercely on the grass of Nelson Fernández’s neutral ground. A bouquet of six touchdowns in the fifth half eliminated the chances of a surprise approach by his opponents and the duel ended with a score of 15-12, amid a weak defense of Santiago who made five errors on the field.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Camagüey fans, after raising the flag of the filibuster for several hours, sighed when they saw their bulls plunged into a “baseball coma” and will have to wait for a miracle to qualifies. After this result, the Indomites will get their way in the post-season with at least one victory in the double challenge on Tuesday or, failing that, with two victories for Pinar del Rio or Industriales in their particular stubbornness.
In the match, Santiago Torres hit a pair of homers with four RBIs, Edilse Silva also brought home four teammates with a pair of singles in four bats, and Adriel Labrada and Alexander Llanes went 5-3 each, the latter with a doublet included.
Experienced Alberto Bicet launched six innings with eight accepted rounds (two dirty), but had the 10th hit of the season, and José Luis Gutiérrez got the last two outs to get the save. The defeat came at the expense of Ángel Herrera when he endured five dirty races, after releasing Jonathan Carbó, who could not do justice by leaving the square in the fourth half with six clean scores.
For the Pirates, Eliseo Rojas was 6-for-4 with a pair of 3 pointers and two RBIs, and Lázaro Ponce and Jordanys Acebal led in three races per capita with two shots each.
In the other match of the day, Vegueros de Pinar del Rio, lined up with substitutes, defeated Industriales from the capital in the additional half 7-6, to tie the special series and climb to fifth place in the standings.
Little interest showed the direction of the western team to get the victory in that game leaving their regular players on the bench, however the boys took advantage of the possibility and with an attack of 15 shots embarrassed the blue pitch a few days after the start of the game. post-season travel.
Four runs marked the capital at the top of the third half, three of them at the expense of reliever Branlis Rodriguez, in what appeared to be an unbalanced challenge. Double consecutive by Wilfredo Aroche and Stayler Hernández and a missile in the center of the field by Lisbán Correa; served to tow annotations.
In the fifth, the owner of the cat, José Pablo Cuesta, jumped out of the box after accepting 11 shots during that trip, leaving two men on tampons and Vegueros mask, Yanciel Ajete lost the ball in front of reliever Héctor Ponce, so his team to be able to take over. forward in the match. Ponce hit a ball a few seconds later and was eliminated by the main referee considering it was intentional.
Thus, the cats equalized the score when it came to pick up the bats, when the striker Yoandry Urgellés hit a sacrifice fly with crowded angles and scored another in the extra half without hitting a hit due to a rival defense error. .
With three outings left to succeed, closer Andy Rodriguez, who hung a ring on the board in the previous half, couldn’t avoid a few RBI singles, one of them by Irandy Hernández to let the Blues sit in the grass. neutral ground of Nelson Fernández. Jorge Montano released the last two innings for the yellow-green and ended the story for his first hit of the season.
Reinaldo Lazaga of 5-4 and Roidel Martínez of 6-3 (both with doubles included and three RBIs), were the strongest with the wood for the winners, while for the losers, Stayler stood out with 4-1 with pairs of running RBI and Correa 4-2 with an RBI.
Irandi Hernández connected an undisputed part at the bottom of the tenth half and Vegueros de Pinar del Rio left Industriales in the capital on the field 7-6, to tie the special duel between them and climb to the fifth position in the tournament.
