Baseball
Industriales stormed the 2nd place at the 55th Cuban Baseball Championship, only 1 game away from the leader Ciego de Ávila, when combined their 2 wins over Holguín on Monday with a couple of Granma's defeats facing Isla de la Juventud.
In last night's duel, Industriales squad made a decisive cluster of 3 in the 9th to leave on the field Holguin's Los Cachorros 8-7, with highlighting offensive of Alexander Malleta, Wilfredo Aroche and Javier Camero, authors of homers in the challenge.
Earlier, the ones led by Javier Méndez had dominated Holguin 10-2 in sealing last Sunday game suspended for rain, with the 4th successf of rookie Yoel David Paula and offensive led by Yulieski Gourriel, 4-4, with 2 doubles, 1 homer and 3 RBIs, seconded by shortstop Rudy Reyes, 5-3, with 3 trailers, while Camero also gave homer for the winners and Yordan Manduley imitated him by the losers.
In turn, the leader Ciego de Avila succumbed in a 8-0 shutout facing Santiago de Cuba, in meeting marked by strong pitching performance of veteran Danny Betancourt, who spread 5 hits in 7 innings, while Hurtado Reutilio homered and drove in 2 runs.
Granma fell from 2nd place to sink a couple of times in the overseas holdings of runner-up Isla de la Juventud, which all of a sudden took by assault the so-called Qualifying Zone for the 2nd round.
In the 1st double challenge program, Isla de la Juventud's Los Piratas closed out gracefully by 2-1 margin, with strong performance of the killer Luis Manuel Suárez, who only granted 3 hits and 1 clean in 8 and 2/3 chapters.
At the 2nd hour, Isla de la Juventud arranged Granma's Los Alazanes 5-3 with 3rd success of lefty Wilber Perez, who was placed only at 2 wins from the hundred victories in National Series, while Jorge Tartabull hit triple and drove in 2 for the winners.
Moreover, Las Tunas extended its winning streak by beating Villa Clara 7-2 with Ruben Paz', Jorge Yhonson' and Joenny Southerán's homers while Matanzas knocked Sancti Spiritus 13-3 with 7 offensive homers including 2 per capita of Yandrys Canto and Onel Vega.
In the other match of the day, Guantanamo exceeded Camagüey 2-1 while Pinar del Río-Mayabeque and Artemisa-Cienfuegos clashes were suspended again by rain.
After these results, behind Ciego de Avila (17-6) go Industriales (16-7), Granma (15-7), Las Tunas (13-8), Pinar del Rio (12-8), Sancti Spiritus ( 13-10), Isla de la Juventud and Villa Clara (12-11), while in the lower part of Table struggle Matanzas and Guantanamo (11-11), Havana (10-11), Holguin and Santiago de Cuba (10-13), Artemisa (6-15), Camagüey (5-18) and Mayabeque (4-17).
Volleyball
After losing in 5 sets against Canada on the 1st day of the 2015 Women’s NORCECA Continental Championship, Volleyball Final Four Olympic Qualifier, held at Bicentenario Auditorium of Morelia, Mexico, Cuban enjoyed its 1st success and beat Costa Rica 3-0, where it will face the United States this Tuesday.
The top scorer of the match was the Cuban Heidy Rodriguez, who was key element for the victory with 22 points, 19 in attack and 3 in the block, while Mijal Hines excelled with 11 points in the attack by the losers.
By statistics, Cuba dominated the attack, 36-21, blocking 12-4, and errors of rivals (22-25), while Costa Rica achieved slight advantage in service (3-2), said Roberto Garcia, Cuban coach.
In the other challenge on Monday in Group A, the United States won 3-0 (25-15, 25-17, 25-19) to Canada.
When just tomorrow is still pending to close the preliminary round, the Americans lead the key with 2 wins without setbacks, followed by Cubans and Canadians (1-1), then Costa Ricans (0-2), who lost in their debut 0-3 against the States.
Dayron Robles Could Return to Cuban National Athletics Team
The hurdler Dayron Robles, Olympic and world champion in Beijing-2008, is already training here, hoping for his return to the national athletic team, the National Federation of the discipline revealed.
‘According to the Federation rules he could earn, from his results, the right to become once more a member of the national team’, said a press release of the institution.
The text also made it clear the former world record holder in the 110 meter hurdle race voluntarily withdrew from the Cuban squad in 2013 and competed in several meets for the French Club of Monaco but never under another country's flag.
‘He has now started training at the Pan-American Stadium where there are facilities according to his level and a trainer will be assigned to him’, says the note.
The release also makes clear that the aspiration of Robles is to represent Cuba at the Olympic Games of Rio de Janeiro-2016.
