After walking to José Sibrian and loading the bases, Eriel Sánchez came out to chat with the Cuban pitcher and he managed to dominate Kevin Melean, an experienced player in Double-A, in rolling to shortstop for the third out of a entry that left with two annotations for Venezuela.
Yandy Yánez began the inning by connecting a ground ball to the second baseman, but he slipped and could not get the out, the scorers gave the undisputed to Camagüey. Miguel González hit a double play on the first pitch and Andrys Pérez struck out with a breaker on the ground. Jesús Vargas only made 7 shipments in that inning.
The Venezuelans started the second inning just as they left the first. Antonio Piñero opened with an unstoppable center-back and Carlos Rodríguez, the man with the home run in the first inning, shot a double to left-center. Jesús Lujano brought two more with another tubey to the left side of the field. That forced the Cuban high command to bring Kelbis Rodríguez to the aid of Chi, who could only throw a full inning, allowing 6 hits and 5 earned runs.
The Granmense Rodríguez dominated the first batter he faced on a ground ball to second, and then Romer Cuadrado, the Dodgers’ Double A player, took it throughout the center field to make the score 6-0. In this inning seven batters went to the plate and scored four.
1-2-3 fell the round of Cuba in the third inning. The Venezuelan pitcher was perfect as he dominated Rangel Ramos via strikeout and both Rodoleisis Moreno and Chapellí failed in harmless Rolling.
Vino Tinto continued to show why it was the team that hit the most in the regular stage. The Venezuelans began the third inning in their final half with a hit from Sibrian and advanced to the second on a shooting error from Cuban shortstop Rangel Ramos. With one out on the board, Antonio Piñero hit a double to right field to bring the seventh run of the game for the Venezuelan squad.
With runner in second, leadoff hitter Carlos Rodríguez scored another hit RBI and reached third after Cuban right fielder Loidel Chapellí screwed up the ball. The Cuban pitcher put his arm in and ended up striking out the second and third wood of the rival lineup. Not many imagined that after three full innings the game would be 8-0
The Cuban team threatened in the fourth inning by connecting two hits to Venezuelan starter Jesús Vargas. The Antilleans left the house full after Guillermo García and Yandy Yánez tied undisputed and Miguel González got pregnant by mistake of the first baseman. The Venezuelan pitcher dominated catcher Andry Perez on a grounder to shortstop for the third out of the inning and thus “killed” the inning for the Cuban offense.
Cuban reliever Kelbis Rodríguez allowed doubles by Romer Cuadrado and Justin López in the bottom of the fourth inning for the Venezuelans to score the ninth run to threaten the knockout. After two outs, Kevin Melean arrived safely at the start on a ground ball to Short Stop that was called out by the first base umpire, but the Venezuelan manager claimed and won the challenge. With runners on the corners and two outs, the Cuba team pitcher “walked” the batter in turn and with the bases loaded he dominated Carlos Rodríguez in the middle ground.
Jesús Vargas returned to the mound in the fifth inning and although Rodoleisis hit left field, he forced Chapellí to ground for a double play and thus end the fifth inning for the Cuban offense.
Jesús Lujano, a Double-A player for the Milwaukee Brewers, opened the end of the fifth inning with the Cuban pitcher uncatchable at Left-Field. Robert Pérez missed the pick to give up the first out of the fifth inning. The KO threat was still in circulation for Venezuela, but Romer Cuadrado missed on the fly to the right meadow. With two players out, Juan Fernández deposited the ball to Kelbis Rodríguez in the stands to apply the rule of mercy to Cuba.
The Venezuelan squad scored the victory after shooting 15 hits, of which five doubles and three home runs against the poor and decimated Cuban pitching. On the Cuban side, the offense could only connect five hits, four of them shared between Guillermo García and Yandy Yánez.
Venezuelan starter Jesus Vargas scored his second game win of the tournament by pitching five innings without runs, without walks and with five strikeouts. The defeat went to Bryan Chi, who lost both games for the Cuban team. In the following link we share the Box Score.
Cuba will play tomorrow at the same time against the Colombian team that today beat Chinese Taipei at the beginning of this phase. For more information about the event you can visit the page of Cuban Ball