Mayabeque seeks to consolidate leadership in Cuban baseball championship

Havana, May 29 (PL) - The Mayabeque team seeks this Monday to consolidate its leadership in the Cuban baseball championship in a double game against Las Tunas, when the tournament is in the final third of its regular schedule.

The so-called Huracanes could not start their duel with the Leñadores de las Tunas on Sunday due to transportation problems and in spite of the setback they remained at the top of the standings in terms of average number of games won and lost in relation to Santiago.

The Avispas de Santiago de Cuba did take advantage to reduce the difference by beating Matanzas 5-1, in a game in which Carlos Monier hit a home run and a double.

Santiago accumulates one win and one loss more than the leading team of Mayabeque, but technically they have three points less in the average, which determines the order.

In the start of Sunday's sub-series, Industriales gave Pinar del Río the eighth super knockout of the campaign with an 18-1 score, in a game in which Alberto Calderón played a leading role, hitting 3-3, with 5 RBIs.

The eight games decided by super knockout in the current campaign are a record.

Holguín remained in the classification zone after defeating Artemisa 5-3; individually, Michel Cabrera signed his ninth save of the tournament and Edilse Silva hit his 199th home run of his life.

In that game, Artemisa's Dayán García hit his 15th home run of the season, which put him in sole command of the home run ranking and one short of 100 in the national series.

Sunday was completed with wins for Guantanamo over Ciego de Avila by knockout (10-0), Sancti Spíritus defeated Villa Clara in extrainning (10-6), Camagüey blanked La Isla (5-0) and the champion Granma maintained its winning pace, although it is still out of the standings, by defeating Cienfuegos (11-3).

The standings are still led by Mayabeque (31-22), escorted by Santiago de Cuba (32-23), Matanzas (31-24), Artemisa (29-23), Las Tunas (27-24), Sancti Spíritus (28-25), Holguín (28-26) and Pinar del Río (27-26), which closes the ranking.