(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Granma wins third game; needs one for Cuban title
Nederlands
 BAYAMO, Granma (Cuba) -
Alazanes de Granma recorded its third win in a row on Saturday (January 21) in the best-of-seven Final of the Cuban Serie Nacional de Béisbol.
After winning 4-3 in 10 innings in the opener on Wednesday and 3-2 in the next game on Thursday, Granma this time registered a convincing 10-1 victory in Game 3 against defending champion Tigres de Ciego de Ávila.
With this, Granma is one win away from capturing its first Cuban baseball-title.
Playing at home in Estadio Mártires de Barbados in Bayamo (capital of the Granma Province), Granma rallied for five runs in the first inning to set the tone and take an early comfortable lead.
In the top of the first inning, Granma-starter Lázaro Blanco walked Julio Pablo Martinez with one out, but he was caught stealing.
A flyout ended the at bat.
Moments later, Granma scored five runs and with that, it decided the game early.
Ciego de Ávila-starter Dachel Duquesne ran into problems quickly.
He gave up a lead-off single to Roel Santos, then walked Yordan Manduley.
The bases got loaded when Duquesne hit Yunior Paumier with a pitch and the first run was scored when next batter Alfredo Despaigne also walked.
It led to a quick pitching change, as Raidel Martinez took over.
Hereafter, Manduley was forced out at the plate on a grounder by Dennis Laza and a flyout accounted for the second out.
But then, Guillermo Avilés connected well and hit a grand slam homerun to lift the lead to 5-0.
...Roger Machado is the Manager...
...of Ciego de Ávila since 2007...
...In 2011, he was Manager of Cuba...
...during the World Port...
...Tournament in Rotterdam (Neth.)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the top of the third inning, Ciego de Ávila got the bases loaded off of Blanco.
Yorbis Borroto led off with a single and with two outs, Julio Pablo Martinez also singled and Edilse Silva walked.
But the three stranded when Blanco closed with a strikeout.
In the fourth, Yoelvis Fiss doubled for Ciego de Ávila with one out, but with two outs, he was eliminated trying to advance on a grounder.
Granma then added three more runs in the bottom of the fourth.
With two outs, Roel Santos and Yordan Manduley singled and both scored when Yunior Paumier followed with a double.
That brought in new pitcher Ariosky Hernandez, who walked Alfredo Despaigne intentionally to set up a force play.
However, Hernandez then hit next batter Dennis Laza with a pitch and walked Carlos Benítez to bring in another run.
That also led to another pitching change, as Yunser Corrales took over.
He got a flyout to end the inning, but Granma now led 8-0.
In the top of the fifth, Ciego de Ávila scored when Raul Gonzalez led off with a homerun, but this was to be the team's lone run.
Granma got the run back immediately in its fifth at bat when Alfredo Despaigne walked with the bases loaded with two outs.
In the top of the sixth, Granma-starter Lázaro Blanco was relieved after walking Donald Duarte with one out.
Yanier Gonzalez took over and retired the next two batters.
Granma added one more run in the seventh inning.
Lead-off hitter Yoelkis Cespedes was hit by a pitch from Yunser Corrales, who was then relieved by Denis Castillo.
He saw Cespedes advance on a wild pitch and a grounder, then gave up a sacrifice fly to Yordan Manduley that lifted the lead to 10-1.
Granma-reliever Gonzalez was supported with double plays in the seventh and eighth inning.
In the ninth, Juan Ramon Olivera took over.
He gave up an one-out double to Ruben Valdes, but hereafter, two flyouts ended the game.
(January 21)
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