Las Tunas. —The Las Tunas lumberjacks will go out this Saturday in search of their eighth consecutive victory that will keep them as leaders in the Cuban baseball championship, despite the stalking of Pinar del Río.
Champion in last year’s edition, the Las Tunas team has already secured the subseries against Santiago de Cuba and threatens to complete the cleanup in the matchup that began on Tuesday, Prensa Latina reported.
It seems like a custom that Lumberjacks has cold starts in the season and little by little accelerates the pace until it rises to the first places in the ranking.
This Thursday they defeated Avisas orientales 7-3 with the leading role of Rafael Viñales, who went 3 for 4, including a home run, drove in two runs and provided the saving relief of Rodolfo Díaz, impeccable in the final third of the game.
Although Pinar del Río also won and is half a line ahead of Leñadores, it is 11 points below the average of wins and losses, a determining indicator in the ordering of the standings.
Vegueros achieved its first success against La Isla 5-1 and maintained its winning pace in the championship, which is why predictions of a possible final between them and Las Tunas increase, unprecedented in baseball on the island.
Ciego de Ávila beat an unknown Villa Clara twice (4-1 and 3-2), which shares the penultimate place, after seven consecutive defeats.
On Friday, Holguín and Camagüey maintained their shutout streak, only now the Cubs emerged victorious (4-0).
Granma left Guantánamo on the field 4-3 with three runs in the ninth inning, a game where Alfredo Despaigne hit his 14th home run of the season and resumed his sole lead among the top home run producers.
For life he has 277 and is three behind Fernando Sánchez from Matanzas, who occupies 15th place in the historical ranking in Cuban national tournaments, according to the files of statistician Benigno Daquinta.
In the other games, Mayabeque beat Cienfuegos 11-1, Matanzas did the same with Sancti Spíritus (12-0) and Industriales defeated Artemisa for the second day in a row (3-1) with the sixth success of Andy Vargas, co-leader in won alongside Alberto Pablo Civil, Dachel Duquesne and Albert Valladares.
After Las Tunas (24-11) and Pinar del Río (27-13) appear Ciego de Ávila (24-16), Granma and Camagüey (23-17), Industriales (22-18), Artemisa and Santiago de Cuba (20 -twenty).
Outside the classification zone are Matanzas (19-21), Sancti Spíritus and Mayabeque (18-22), La Isla (15-20), Villa Clara, Guantánamo and Holguín (16-24) and Cienfuegos (14-26) .
