U-23 Pan American Baseball Championship
Aguascalientes, June 16 (JIT) - After Wednesday's results at the 2022 Pan American Baseball Under-23 Championship, held in this Mexican state, three teams have already qualified for the semifinal phase and for the World Cup next October in Taiwan.
After Mexico and Cuba qualified on Monday and Tuesday with their fourth victories in this match, the strong Nicaragua team qualified on Wednesday with a 1x0 victory over Venezuela.
The match brought face to face the champions of the previous edition of this competition, the Nicaraguans, and the kings of the planet in this category, the Venezuelans.
The game remained scoreless until the last inning, when the Managua team scored the "little run" with a jit, a run batted in and a run batted in. The credit for the victory went to Milton Quintana, who worked lightly against Cuba on Monday, but today covered the entire route with only two hits, the same number of tickets and eight strikeouts.
The day brought another game of "cold bats", as the hosts defeated the Puerto Ricans 2x1 and extended their undefeated record to 5-0, with only a game against Cuba to be played this Thursday in the conclusion of the preliminary phase.
In the duel of the tournament's runners-up, Argentina defeated Guatemala in five innings with a 17x3 score.
This Thursday, Cubans and Mexicans will define the leadership of the preliminary stage, while Venezuelans and Puerto Ricans will fight for the last ticket to the semifinals and the World Cup.
Venezuela must beat Guatemala without difficulty and qualify, as it has in its favor the fact that it defeated Puerto Rico in the particular duel.
The boys from the Island of Enchantment are going hard against Nicaragua and not even the victory assures them nothing, they depend on an unthinkable fiasco of the Morochos against the Guatemalans.
Cuban manager Armando Johnson has announced the right-hander Michel Cabrera against Mexico, although he will surely appeal to the staff to activate him for the crucial games of the weekend in search of medals.
There will be no easy game in the semifinals, because if they beat the Aztecs this Thursday, they will face Venezuela for the gold medal, while if they lose, they will face Nicaragua.
It is not confirmed yet, but everything indicates that Saturday's starter will be left-hander Naykel Cruz, first of the national staff here and with a week's rest.
The Cuban Baseball Federation informed that the delegation attending the U-23 Pan American Championship to be held in this Mexican state has been without athletes Alfredo Fadraga and Yosvani Avalos since Wednesday.
With the decision to abandon us, they are turning their backs on the commitment assumed with the people who accompany us in the desire to conquer the best possible result in this fair, and incur in repudiated facts that we condemn from the decision of not giving up in the face of this or other obstacles, says the text.
In the midst of the sustained aggression against Cuban sports, the disqualification of the agreement aimed at normalizing the arrival of our players to Major League Baseball continues to be a stimulus for the orchestrators of these actions of trafficking of athletes.
We reiterate our decision to give ourselves with passion in every outing, ready for no absence to prevent the applause of the millions of compatriots who know how to reward the dignity of Cubans, concluded the Cuban Federation.
