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Cuban baseball to Beijing Olympics
• Homeruns by Mayeta, Pestano and
Yulieski • U.S. also classifies
• Classic tomorrow
at 8:00 p.m.
BY SIGFREDO BARROS—Granma
daily staff writer—
FRANK Montieth demonstrated that he has all he needs
to go far in his career upon shutting down the
Mexican team, a victory with which Cuba secured, for
the fifth time, a place in the Olympics, in this
occasion in Beijing 2008. In the other game of the
evening, the U.S. defeated Panama and won the other
slot in the competition.
It
is not common to see a pitcher aged 21 (born January
11, 1985) with such composure in a decisive game as
the right-hander from Havana displayed last night.
He only allowed 2 hits, with 6 strikeouts, and sent
11 batters in a row back to the dugout between the
hits of Noé Muñoz and Gastelum, with 8 hitless
innings, (a new leader on average, with 13 innings
without allowing any runs, and also in terms of
rival hitters, 052.2 indisputable in 38 bats). He
threw 95 pitches, 55 of them breaking balls, with a
maximum velocity of 91 mph. Lazo closed the game
with a pair of 94-mph strikeouts.
U.S.A DEFEATS PANAMA
There were no surprises this time –like the last
pre-Olympic in Panama 2003—and the U.S. team won a
ticket to the Olympics by defeating Panama 11-5,
backed by a productive attack and the work of their
relief pitchers Nick Ungs, Lee Gronkiewicz and Jeff
Farnsworth. Shortstop Brandon Word, the same player
who decided the game against Nicaragua, hit 3-2 with
three runs, followed by Mike Bown, 3-2, and Billy
Butler, 4-2, both with a pair of runs batted in.
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