Granma finishes in fifth place in Haarlem Baseball Week

Havana, July 14 (RHC)-- The Alazanes from Granma team saved face today with a 5x1 victory over Italy in the XXX Haarlem Baseball Week and finished in fifth place in the tournament.

The Cuban offense managed to string together three runs in the top of the fourth inning and another two in the fifth, enough to support the good work of Yuen Socarrás, who completed 6.1 innings with three tickets, eight strikeouts and only six hits allowed.

This time the Cubans were able to produce runs, supported by the batting of Guillermo Avilés (3-3, 2CI), Osvaldo Abreu (4-1), Alexander Ayala and Fréderich Cepeda (3-1), while Denis Laza and Carlos Benítez batted 3-1 with one run at the plate, respectively.

At Pim Mulier Stadium, Carlos Santana came to Socarrás' rescue, faced two batters and allowed no runs. On the other side, starter Paul Scafidi, who only pitched four innings, took the loss.

The Grenadians were coming off a 28-inning scoreless streak, avenging Wednesday's loss to Italy. However, they fell short of the fourth place achieved by a Cuban team in the previous edition held in 2018.