Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, Feb 13.- Propelled by the public that enjoyed their performance, the Navegantes de Magallanes defeated the Cuban team 9-1 in the semifinal of the II Baseball Series of the Americas, held at the Monumental Simón Bolívar stadium in the Venezuelan city of Caracas.
The hosts decided the fate of the game from the very first inning, even though the islanders opened the scoring with their only run in that inning by combining a triple from ErisbelArruebarrena and an RBI single from YoelquisGuibert.
In the bottom of that same inning, the Navegantes took control of the game after stringing together three hits and two walks, with which they scored two of the four runs allowed by Randy Cueto, the losing pitcher of the game.
The young pitcher from Villa Clara pitched until the fourth inning, when he handed the ball over to his countryman Osdany Rodríguez, who was greeted with a double that added two more runs to the scoreboard.
The local offense extended the lead with solo home runs from Renato Núñez and Rougned Odor, who in the preliminary phase had hit a Grand Slam against the Cubans, and another string of hits in the eighth that set the final numbers to the delight of the stands.
Left-hander Adrián Almeida sealed the success with 5.1 innings of work, in which he delivered half of the 12 strikeouts recorded by the students of Germán Mesa, who only managed five hits, two of them by YoelquisGuibert, who, however, was caught off base a couple of times.
In the other semifinal, Colombia's Caimanes de Barranquilla defeated the leader of the preliminary phase, Panama's ÁguilasMetropolitanas, with a score of 6-4, a game decided by a home run from Gabriel Lino in the ninth inning with a runner on base.
Today, at the close of the tournament, Cuba and Panama will play for the bronze medal, and the Navegantes will clash with the Caimanes for the title, both duels at the Monumental Simón Bolívar.
This Thursday, the All-Star team of the tournament was announced, which included Cubans Alfredo Despaigne, Yasiel González, and Luis Vicente Mateo. (Text and photo: ACN)
