With a victory, Cajigal’s troops will secure a ticket to the semifinal phase, to which Las Tunas already qualified with its 4-0 sweep against Ciego de Ávila
Havana, Cuba, Jul 15th.- With a solid pitching performance by Osvaldo Acuña, and with the speed put into function of the offense, Santiago de Cuba defeated Camagüey 8-2 today to take a 3-2 lead in the bilateral duel of quarterfinals in the LXII National Baseball Series.
Visiting the Cándido González stadium, the Santiago Avispas had a good repertoire of deliveries from Acuña, a 32-year-old rookie from the municipality of San Luis who lost the no hit, no run in the seventh inning due to an error by the right fielder Carlos Monier.
Acuña moved the Teammate 190 well, never moved out of the strike zone – he only issued two walks – and crossed batters with outside pitches for his sixth victory of the season.
In the five games played so far, newcomer mentor Eddy Cajigal’s Santiago team have maintained their game system based on the use of their players’ speed in running off the bases. Today four bases were stolen and they perfectly executed a suicidal squeeze play (ball bunt with a man at third).
At bat for the winners, third baseman Euclides Pérez stood out, who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs.
Now, with the Avispas 3-2 ahead, this pairing against the Toros will return to the Guillermón Moncada stadium in Santiago. With a victory, Cajigal’s troops will secure a ticket to the semifinal phase, to which Las Tunas already qualified with its 4-0 sweep against Ciego de Ávila.
(ACN)