Leñadores de Las Tunas delivered. With 19 hits they beat 18×5 the pale Daom Club of Argentina and kept their chances of advancing to the semifinals of the First Baseball Series of the Americas, held in Nicaragua.
But in order to achieve this step, the students of mentor Abeicy Pantoja need the host Nicaraguan team to beat the Colombian team Caimanes de Barranquilla this Tuesday, in the last day of the qualifying stage.
In the duel, the Argentinean team took the lead in the first inning, with three runs against starter Yoennis Yera, on a home run by starter Sebastián Fontana with two runners on.
In the second act, the Matanzas left-hander allowed a pair of successive hits, Pantoja took him off the mound and brought in his “talisman” Andy Vargas, who stopped the rival offense.
The Industriales right-hander threw 3.2 chapters with six strikeouts and just two hits to earn his second victory… the only two for the Leñadores in the tournament.
With two tickets and just a single by Yordanis Alarcón, the Cuban team scored two runs in the second inning and then built a decisive five-run cluster in the third act, with four hits, including a home run by Alarcón himself with two teammates in circulation, to establish a lead that they never lost (7×3).
The Leñadores’ party continued with two runs in the fifth, another in the sixth and one more in the seventh.
Lenier Ferraz replaced Vargas in the sixth inning and in the seventh allowed the fourth run of the Albiceleste squad.
To his rescue came Frank Herrera, from the capital, who closed that episode. But in the eighth inning he conceded a ticket and then Luis Atiles hit a triple for the fifth and last run of the Argentine Daom Club.
The Leñadores closed the game with a seven-run rally in the ninth chapter, with four hits, three tickets, and a balk.
On offense, Alarcón, who went 6-4 with a home run, a double and six runs.
