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National Baseball
Series Begins in Cuba, Matanzas wins Opener
HAVANA,
Cuba, Sep 22 (acn).— Solid pitching performance by
lefty Yoanni Yera provided a 5-1 win of the runner
up Matanzas over the current champion Pinar del Rio
in the opening match of the Cuban National Baseball
Series in its 54th edition.
Yera allowed
only one hit and struck out five in seven innings of
work to earn his first win of the season, and Felix
Fuentes saved the game, while the ace Yosvani Torres
took the loss by allowing three earned runs in two
innings.
The Matanzas
Crocodiles best hitter was the third baseman
Yurisbel Gracial who hit 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs, while
first baseman William Saavedra hit a homerun to
score the only run for the losers.
Miguel Diaz-Canel
Bermúdez, Cuban First Vice President, attended the
opening ceremony which constituted a propitious
occasion to demand the release of Gerardo Hernandez,
Antonio Guerrero and Ramón Labañino, Cuban
antiterrorist unjustly imprisoned in the United
States.
Yosvani
Torres, Pinar del Río´s ace pitcher, received a bat
dedicated to the current monarchs of national
pastime sent by Gerardo Hernandez.
These two
squads will face each other again today on a day
that also includes the matches Artemisa-Isla de la
Juventud, Industriales-Mayabeque, Villa Clara-
Cienfuegos, Sancti Spiritus -Ciego de Avila,
Camagüey-Las Tunas, Granma-Holguin and Santiago de
Cuba-Guantánamo.
The
preliminary round of the National Baseball Series
will run until December 19, with an intermediate
recess in November due to the celebration of the
Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz,
Mexico.
On December
25 it will take place the reinforcements' election
for the eight teams qualified to the second phase,
which will run from January 4 to March 19, with
another stop to the champion Pinar del Rio to attend
to the Caribbean Series to be made in Puerto Rico in
early February.
Taken
from Cuban Information Agency
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