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Under-23 World Baseball
Taipei, October 19 (PL) - Cuba chased away the demons of bewilderment to beat Australia (3-1) and leave in suspense its future in the IV World Baseball Under-23 World Cup in Taipei, China 2022.
In the midst of a volcano, on the verge of elimination, the players of manager Alain Alvarez minimized an inspired Oceanic team in the match postponed due to rain since the second day of the schedule.
On the synthetic turf of the Taipei Tianmu Baseball stadium, the pitchers' performance during the entire route and three connections in the first and fifth chapters were vital.
Pitcher Naykel Cruz led the triumph thanks to a 2.1 inning performance; his reliever Oscar Hernández (1-0, 2.0) did his job to get the main credit and Leodán Reyes (one) made a great closing performance by getting the last five outs of the game.
The Antilleans opened the scoreboard in the same initial episode with a rocket by Guillermo García, who also brought in the third run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth act, after a hit by Pedro Pablo Revilla.
According to the official statistics, both teams scored four hits and the only two defensive errors were on the losers' score sheet.
Thus, Cuba closed the qualifying phase of group B with a negative balance of 2-3, but awaited the remaining results of the day to know if it will advance -or not- to the next stage.
The universal tournament kicked off last Thursday and will last until the 23rd, with the participation of 12 teams divided into two segments that provide three per capita tickets to the Super Round.