U-12 Baseball
Havana, May 23 (RHC) - Cuba's under-12 team suffered a hard blow in its aspirations to obtain one of the four tickets in dispute for the world championship, falling 27-21 in eight episodes against Puerto Rico in the Pre-World Cup tournament being held in the Mexican city of Aguascalientes.
It was the third loss in a row for the young Antillean boys after winning in their debut against the Dominican Republic (by no-show) and now their qualification is very much in jeopardy, as they must win their remaining three games and wait for the results of the other matches.
The disciples of professor Raúl Rodríguez showed tremendous combativeness, hitting seven home runs, coming from behind four times and not giving up until the last out of the game.
Their opponents scored seven runs in the top of the second inning, and they countered with a sledgehammer of eight, hitting three consecutive home runs off the wrists of Darien Prieto (with the bases loaded), Angel Miguel Perez (his third in the competition) and Luis Enrique Gurriel Jr.
Pitchers Arley Marrero and Kendry Abreu could not withstand the artillery of the Puerto Ricans, who with a four-run package in the third resumed their lead on the scoreboard.
Another home run in the bottom of that inning by Evián Alejandro Pérez with one on board brought the Nationals closer, and in the fifth they took command with six runs, five of them driven by homers by Yondel Cárdenas, Prieto and Gurriel Jr, the latter their second of the day.
When it was time to pick up the bats, the small Caribbean islanders ran riot and produced a bunch of six runs, in a chapter to forget where three pitchers paraded and there were three bases on balls, an equal number of hits, a ball and a costly error in the field.
When the Cubans were only one out away from defeat, a wild pitch led to a tie that lasted until the eighth, after each side scored three times in the seventh.
There came the definition after more than four hours of play when the Borinqueneers manufactured a total of seven deadly runs to achieve an unreachable lead.
Darien Prieto had to bear the setback when he gave up 11 runs, five of them dirty, in only 2.2 chapters of work.
The Cubans will face Brazil, the weakest team of the eight participants, this Tuesday at noon, and will then bid for their World Cup ticket against the strong teams of Mexico and Venezuela.
Taken from the Facebook profile of Boris Luis Cabrera
