Industriales, Matanzas and Santiago de Cuba won in Tuesday’s session
Industriales’ victory and Sancti Spíritus’ defeat caused an embrace between both teams at the top of the II Elite League of Cuban Baseball, which is going through its fifth particular subseries.
As locals at the Latin American Stadium, the Leones counted on the effective work of right-hander Reemberto Barreto, who, wrapped in an excellent season, recovered from an uncertain start and threw seven innings with five hits to beat Artemisa 3×1.
Barreto, very well defended in the field, achieved his fourth win without defeats in the tournament, to equal in that leadership with the left-hander Ariel Zerquera from El Espiritu. Second save for Juan Xavier Peñalver.
Raico Santos, 4-3, including a solo home run, and Luis Vicente Mateo, 4-3, with a triple, were the best hitters for the capital blues, who broke a losing streak of three successive defeats.
The victory of the Leones was combined with the defeat of the Gallos espirituanos, 2×6 against Matanzas at the Victoria Park in Girón.
For the Cocodrilos yumurinos, who left 10 runners in circulation, the lumber palms went to former major leaguer Rusney Castillo, 4-3, all doubles, and a fletched run to the plate. Eduardo Blanco also hit 4-3 and homered.
Second win for left-hander Yamichel Pérez and third game saved for fast right-hander Armando Dueñas.
In this game, catcher Nelson Batista, the Saurian’s reinforcement from Holguin, set a Cuban record by surpassing 970 innings without committing a pass ball, a mark previously held by Roger Machado.
Batista is currently taking advantage of the presence of the Yumurinos’ regular catcher, Andrys Pérez, in the U-23 pre-World Cup tournament in Nicaragua.
At the Julio Antonio Mella stadium, in a game of five errors, the visiting team of Santiago de Cuba defeated Las Tunas 13×5.
Andres de la Cruz batted 5-3 with a pair of two-run homers and three runs. Robert Luis Delgado homered. Reliever Yoandris Montero had his first hit. The Tunas lumberjacks left 11 men on the pads.
After these results, there is a tie between Industriales and Sancti Spíritus (11-7). Next are Matanzas and Artemisa (9-9). Las Tunas is in fifth place (12-10) and Santiago de Cuba is in the basement (6-12).
