Baseball: Puerto Rico beats Cuba

San Salvador, June 28 (PL)- The Puerto Rican team won its first game by leaving Cuba on the field in extrainning in the baseball tournament of the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador.

The Puerto Ricans decided in the eighth inning with Schiller rule when the Cuban reliever Yeudis Reyes gave Yadiel Rivera a bases-loaded ticket to make the score 5-4.

The Cuban team took the lead in the second inning with a two-run homer by Raico Santos and a run-scoring hit by Dayán García.

In the bottom of that inning, the Puerto Ricans evened the scoreboard with Jesmanuel Valentín's home run with two men on with Cuban starter Naykel Cruz.

With three tickets and a balk, the Puerto Ricans went ahead on the scoreboard in the fifth inning, and Cuba came back to even the score in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Andrys Perez.

The hit went to pitcher Jan Figueroa, who struck out Yasniel Gonzalez in the eighth, with men on all bases and two outs.

The Mexican team blanked Nicaragua 7-0 and remained the only undefeated team in the baseball tournament, which will complete its fourth day of competition today.

The Aztecs have won all three games by a shutout, which confirms their hopes of winning the gold medal for the first time in the history of these multiple regional events.

In addition to the dominance of their pitching, which went 21 scoreless innings, their long-range offense produced three home runs, all with men on, off the lumber of Jesús Ávila (3CI), Fernando Villegas (2CI) and Rainel Rosario (2CI).

The victory went to starter Luis Miranda (6.0 IP, 2H, 4K), who did not give up any bases on balls.

This success put the Mexicans at the top of the championship, after Curaçao defeated Venezuela 4-3 and took away their undefeated record.

Behind Mexico (3-0) are Curacao and Venezuela (both 2-1), Dominican Republic (1-1), Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and Cuba (all three 1-2), and host El Salvador (0-2).

Today's games are scheduled to be played between Puerto Rico-Curacao, Venezuela-Nicaragua, Mexico-Dominican Republic and Cuba-El Salvador. At the end of the preliminary phase, the first two places will compete for the gold medal and the teams placed third and fourth will face each other for the bronze medal.

The four finalists will receive as an additional prize a direct ticket to the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile later this year.