Baseball

Ciego de Ávila has broken the string of 8 consecutive wins in the 54th Cuban Baseball Championship after losing facing runner-up Matanzas by 9-3 on Sunday.

Jonder Martinez scored his 3rd hit for Matanzas's Los Cocodrilos by disseminating 7 hits and 3 cleans in 6 and 2/3 entries, while outfielder Ariel Sanchez led the winning drive with 2 homers and 5 RBIs.

Pinar del Río closely outscored 1-0 to Granma in a duel of starters between Vladimir Baños and the Eastern trump card, Lázaro Blanco, who worked 7 episodes without allowing freedoms to their rivals.

The winning run came at the end of the 9th driven in by outfielder Osmel Solano against the defeated Juan Ramon Olivera, while Vladimir Gutiérrez won the credit with perfect relay of 2 chapters.

The star Norge Luis Ruiz filed his 1st hit of the season to put up just 2 hits in 7 innings and a half to lead the Camagüey's 6-1 win over Industriales, with offensive leadership of Dary Bartolomé, author of 1 homer and 3 trailers.

Villa Clara took revenge of Mayabeque by 10-3, with the 1st victory of star Freddy Asiel Alvarez and offensive highlight of outfielder Yuniet Flores, 4-4, with 2 runs scored, while veteran Ariel Borrero gave double and drove in 3.

In other Sunday's results, Artemisa exceeded 2-1 to Sancti Spiritus, Isla de la Juventud 10-6 to Las Tunas, Guantánamo 10-9 to Cienfuegos, and Holguín 6-3 to Santiago de Cuba.

Volleyball (m)

The men's team of Cuba will seek today its 2nd success at the II Pan American U23 Volleyball Cup when facing Guatemala, after beating Trinidad and Tobago 3-0, at the Sport City Coliseum in Havana.

The Cubans beat the Trinitarians by 25-14, 25-12 and 25-10 on Sunday, in a challenge where the hosts were superior in all parameters in a 58-min. game, especially in the attack, which managed 37 points for 8 of their rivals.

According to the website of the contest, which gives 2 seats for the World category of 2015, local offensive was well-balanced and led by Osneil Rendón with 11 points and Osmany Uriarte with 9, while the visitor, Nicholas Prescott, finished with 4.

Rodolfo Sánchez, Cuba's technical director, said at the conclusion of the game, that despite markers, his team did not develop its potential because they made too many mistakes, especially in the last set, said in an interview to local Jit sports publication.

Meanwhile, Trinitarian coach Gideon Dickson congratulated Cubans for their performance and said that "today Cuba was the best team, and its men showed experience and did a good job, we hope to learn from this defeat and progressively do it better."

On Monday's results, Mexico and Dominican Republic were winners, 3-1 and 3-0 to Guatemala and El Salvador, respectively. Trinitarians and Dominicans, at first hour, then Mexicans and Salvadorans, will complete today's program.

After the All Against All stage through Thursday 9th, 5th place and bronze and gold medals will be discussed on Friday 10th.

Football
The Cuban soccer team U-23 will have a training tour in Honduras and El Salvador, in preparation for the Central American and Caribbean Games, planned from November 14th to 30th in Veracruz, Mexico.

The tour will include 4 games, today 6th and the 8th in El Salvador, and October the 9th and 11th in Honduras, said to local media the responsible of Arbitration and Rules of the Football Association of Cuba (AFC), Luis Enrique Yero.

Yero also CONCACAF referee advisor, added that after the this training for Central America, the Cuban team will return to Havana and then make another training base in Mexico from November 1st.

The expert considered that the regional tournament will be a "difficult compromise" and estimated that Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and Costa Rica are the most difficult rivals to defeat. Rounding out the list of participants are El Salvador, Honduras and Jamaica.

The manager said that the Cuban team aims to give an outstanding performance with 20 talented young athletes who recently attended the U-20 World Cup, in Turkey, last year.

By regulation, 3 players aged over 23 years old, Yaudel Lahera, Alain Cervantes and Jorge Luis Clavelo, were also summoned to take part.

Cuba has won 9 medals at these regional events (5-0-4), but has not gotten the podium since the bronze medal achieved in Ponce-93; therefore, Mexico leads the medal tally with 5 gold, but 6 silver.