By Gian Franco Gil
After approximately a year without playing baseball, the 16 teams returned to the field of play, in the 61st edition of the National Series. The long-awaited meeting of the public with the players that follow happened on the afternoon of this Tuesday, January 25. The congas, the shouts and the cries returned, but, above all, the voice of Play Ball!
Yosvani Torres guides Pinar del Río to success
In the first game that ended in the day, the Vegueros de Pinar del Río defeated 4×1 to the Pirates of the Isle of Youth in “Capitán San Luis”. The local team took the victory with 10 hits and no errors on the field. Meanwhile, the pineros were dominated by the shipments of the green-legged pitchers because they only connected four indisputable, with a blunder to the defense.
Lázaro Emilio Blanco was the most outstanding hitter in Alexander Urquiola Jr.’s team. The left-hander had a pair of hits in four visits to the batter’s box, with an RBI. Similarly, the Havanan turned Pinar del Río, Yasser Julio González emulated his numbers, only he did not contribute RBIs to the cast.
The success went to veteran Yosvani Torres, who worked six innings and only had a couple of hits. In this way he reached 118 victories in his career. Meanwhile, right-hander Frank Luis Medina got his first save of the season and Miguel Ángel Lastra came out the narrow door.
The champion got his first victory
On the other hand, the current champion of the domestic tournament, achieved his first victory of the championship 6×2 in front of Guantanamo. Carlos Martí’s troop made two runs in the third inning, three in the sixth and one in the eighth, all with only four hits. Contrary to the chestnuts, the Indios del Guaso easily hit the pitches of the rival pitchers, but the 12 hits that were scored only guaranteed them two runs.
Iván Prieto was the best man on offense in the match. The mask hit a couple of hits in the same number of official at-bats, including a home run and a couple of RBIs. Likewise, the fourth batter of the winning team, Guillermo Avilés, shot a home run in three official turns and scored an RBI.
The visiting squad was led by its third man in the batch, Luis Ángel Gómez, who achieved three hits in five official visits to the batting cage, including a home run, valid to drive in one of the two Guantanamo runs.
The victory went to the account of starter Joel Mojena. The right-hander worked seven full innings, in which he faced 29 batters, had nine hits, allowed two runs, one of them clean, and retired five opponents via strikes. In turn, the defeat went to the account of Enyer Fernández.
The left-hander who debuted in the last contest acted in five innings, in which his worst deficiency was lack of control. He gave up five walks and sent two batters through pain to first. Meanwhile, they scored carts, of which two were clean.
Mayabeque was better than Villa Clara
In a close match held at the Nelson Fernández, the Mayabeque Hurricanes defeated 6×5 to the Villa Clara Sugar Producers. The victory went to the account of Marlon Vega, while the setback was awarded to Raidel Alfonso, who endured two earned runs.
The locals’ offense was led by Juan Hernández, who had a perfect afternoon, with four hits in as many at-bats, including a double and an RBI. On the other hand, Pedro Jova’s oranges depended on Reidel Pedraza, who hit a pair of undisputed threes and drove in a teammate.
Artemisa surprises Industriales at their headquarters
The best match of the day took place at “26 de Julio”, the stadium where the Industriales de La Habana and the Cazadores de Artemisa met. In the challenge, the locals achieved a surprising victory in extra innings and with a score of 8×7, after being nine innings down on the scoreboard.
Israel Sánchez replaced José Ángel García in the eleventh inning, in which he retired the three rival batters to score the success. Meanwhile, David Mena could not contain the Artemisa rebellion in the inning, so he suffered defeat. In that chapter he endured the decisive hit by Carlos Joel Amat, which caused the stadium to explode.
The capital’s offense had the production of Yosvani Peñalver and Alberto Calderón, both with three hits in the match. Likewise, “El Indomable” drove in three lions and Jorge Luis Barcelán, who suffered a muscle contraction, drove in a couple of runs, with a double included.
As a negative note in the meeting, two evils appear in movements of the blues on the pads. First, Oscar Valdés gave an important out in third, after a shot by the shortstop. Then, Yusniel Rosabel came out for the steal in the tenth inning with no outs on the board and was caught off guard at third base.
We would like to thank the author of this short article for this amazing content
THE CAMPO Artemisa over Industriales, Granma and Pinar SUBJECTED their own