Santa Clara, Cuba, June 18 (Prensa Latina) Leopardos de Villa Clara gave a coup of authority here today and put pressure on the other contenders for the last playoff berth in the Cuban baseball season.
Veteran pitcher Alaín Sánchez (5.0 IP, 7H, 5K) scored his fourth success of the campaign and number 97 of his sports career in baseball tournaments on the island.
At bat, Luis Darío Machado, Leonardo Montero and Mailon Tomás, the latter with a home run, drove in a couple of runs each.
With this result, the Leopards were close to Sancti Spíritus and Guantánamo, who could not play due to the weather conditions.
In the other match with definition, La Isla left Industriales in a match in the 3-0 shutout recorded in the service record of the winner Yunier Gamboa and the eighth block of Yadier Garay.
José Luis Bring, 3-for-3, including a home run and a couple of RBIs, led the Pirates’ offense, who broke a string of 11 losses.
Only Yasiel Santoya scored a goal for the Lions, who are still looking for the wins necessary to make their qualification to the quarterfinals official.
If the rain allows it, tomorrow the day will begin at 10:00, local time, in the parks where it was impossible to hold the games today.
As the calendar is about to conclude, Pinar del Río leads the ranking with a balance of 46-24, followed by Las Tunas (41-23), Granma (44-26), Santiago de Cuba (42-30), Ciego de Ávila, Matanzas (39-33), Industriales (39-34), Sancti Spíritus and Guantánamo (37-35).
Then are Villa Clara (37-36), Artemisa (33-36), Mayabeque (34-38), Camagüey (31-41), Holguín (25-48), Cienfuegos (24-48) and La Isla (20 -48).
npg/nrg
