Cienfuegos, Cuba, June 21.- With today’s classification of Sancti Spíritus, the eight teams that will begin the search for the Cuban baseball championship title in the quarterfinals were defined.
The roosters appropriated the last ticket to the quarterfinals after defeating Cienfuegos twice, in both cases by 2-1 and joined Pinar del Río, Granma, Las Tunas, Santiago de Cuba, Industriales, Ciego de Ávila and Matanzas .
With both victories, the Sancti Spiritus finished the regular schedule with a balance of 40-35, tied with Matanzas and Guantánamo, but the tiebreaker system left the Indians out for having lost the subseries with both opponents.
Guantánamo concluded the preliminary phase with a 6-3 victory over Santiago de Cuba, and although they were left without a postseason berth, they deserved praise from experts and the press for their progress compared to previous campaigns.
Most agree that the cast from the eastern end of the island deserves the award for revelation team of the year and if they maintain the current roster they could return to the playoffs next season.
At the end of matchday 75, only one quarterfinal matchup was established, the one between Santiago de Cuba, occupying fourth place, and Industriales, housed in fifth place, a semi-final repeat of last year.
The tournament organizers will announce in the next few hours the game recovery schedule, key to organizing the first three places in the standings, where Las Tunas has options to take over the second seat, currently held by Granma.
This Thursday’s day left leaders Pinar del Río with victories 6-0 and 2-1 over Artemisa, Indsutriales blanked La Isla (1-0), Granma defeated Las Tunas (5-3), Ciego de Ávila beat 4 -2 to Camagüey, Villa Clara divided with Holguín (3-1 and 0-1) and Mayabeque said goodbye with a 5-2 victory against Matanzas.
Pinar del Río (49-24), followed by Granma (47-26), Las Tunas (41-26), Santiago de Cuba (42-33), Industriales and Ciego de Ávila (41-34), Matanzas and Sancti Spíritus (40-35).
Eliminated were Guantánamo (40-35), Villa Clara (38-37), Mayabeque (36-39), Artemisa (33-39), Camagüey (32-43), Holguín (26-49), Cienfuegos (24-51 ) and The Island (20-50).
