THE SELECTION of Colombia defeated Cuba 7×4 and leads undefeated, along with Venezuela, the qualifying group B in the pre-World Baseball Tournament U-23.

The Colombians were able to hold the scoreboard when they were behind and came back in the fifth in the fifth inning against the Cuban bullpen, unable to preserve the minimal advantage with which the team reached the half-game.

Cuba attacked quickly with three runs in the first inning, but the rivals scored two in the following inning and the scoreboard remained that way until the fifth inning when the Caribbean starter José Isaías Grandales (4.0 IP, 4CL, 3K, 4K, 2BB) exploded, leaving two runners on with no outs.

The rescuers Rafael Perdomo, Alex Guerra and Orisbel Borges supported run-scoring hits that put the Cafeteros on top of the scoreboard for good.

A home run by Andrew Salcedo in the sixth inning, with a man on the basepaths, opened the scoreboard even more, which only suffered a slight change in the seventh, when the Cubans filled the bases, but only scored once.

Colombia’s mentor, Neder Horta, acknowledged that his team is playing very good baseball and praised the group of boys for their behavior on the field.

We were able to stop Cuba, which is a great rival, and then we made the necessary runs to win, explained the helmsman, who is confident of winning one of the two World Cup berths assigned to the B section.

The triumph that kept the Colombians unbeaten in the competition went to the services of reliever Nicolás Maldonado (2.1IP, 1H, 3K, 3BB), while Grandales took the setback.