Havana, April 1 (ACN) - The Tigres de Ciego de Avila hit their 15th hit in 17 appearances, clinched the top spot and continued their safe course to the postseason of the LXIII National Baseball Series.
A home run with full pads by Alexis Miguel Varona could not prevent Dany Miranda's felines from sweeping the Sancti Spíritus Gallos 11-6 and sweeping them in the five games played this week.
Raúl González (4-3) hit a rocket to the left side in the sixth inning to tow a couple of runs of the three he scored in the challenge and give his team a lead that they did not lose in the rest of the game.
Héctor Labrada also stood out with a two-run homer and Rubén Valdés with a pair of singles, both with two runs batted in per capita.
Yomil González signed a 3.2 inning save with only one run allowed and took the credit, while José Eduardo Santos lost it in an opening where he worked 6.1 innings and was scored six times, half of them due to errors.
The Vegueros of Pinar del Río defeated Santiago de Cuba 19-7 at the Capitán San Luis stadium to win the particular battle and remain three games behind the place of honor.
Facing five rival pitchers, the westerners deployed an attack of 18 hits, six of them against the defeated Wilber Reyna, who went home with seven hits allowed in 2.2 chapters of work.
Luis Pablo Acosta (5-4) and Jorge Yoan Rojas (3-3) stole the show by each firing a pair of doubles and a home run and sharing equally in eight RBIs.
Reliever Mario Sanchez (1-1) and Alexei Ramirez (4-1) also faded the ball over the pads, the latter with two runners on base.
Branlis Rodriguez had five hits in 5.2 chapters, but thanks to his team's offense, he scored his first hit of the season.
For the eastern side, Euclides Pérez (4-2) fired a home run with a teammate on board.
At the Mártires de Barbados stadium in Bayamo, the Alazanes of Granma did not believe in José Ramón Rodríguez and defeated the Toros of Camagüey 9-1 to drop them to third place in the standings.
Leandro Martinez filed his second victory with a great work of eight innings where only one run was scored and he left four batters with the carbine on his shoulder.
Alexquemer Sánchez hit the ball out of the park for the sixth time, Osvaldo Abreu had a perfect afternoon (4-4) with three RBIs and Darián Palma went 5-3 with four RBIs.
"Pepe" Rodríguez was unable to get past the fourth inning and went home with five clean sheets and the loss of the game.
Industriales did their homework at the Nelson Fernández Stadium, San José de Las Lajas, and defeated the Huracanes, Mayabeque, 7-2, to win the series and catch up with the Toros in the standings.
Jorge Enrique Alomá (5-1) hit a triple that towed two runners, the same amount that drove in Roberto Acevedo (3-1) and Yasiel Santoya (3-1).
The hit went to Maikel Taylor's record (his third of the season), despite allowing eight hits and giving away six tickets in five episodes of work.
José Ignacio Bermúdez was unable to get past the second inning and took the setback by accepting six runs, two of them dirty.
In other games, Matanzas defeated Villa Clara 8-3 with Andrys Pérez with a home run and three runs batted in, Guantánamo 4-3 against Holguín and Cienfuegos defeated Artemisa 9-2.
Ciego leads the table with 15-2, followed by Pinar 12-5, and Camaguey and Industriales, 12-6, in the first positions.