Baseball
Villa Clara will face off Artemisa today in one of the most attractive clashes of the 54th National Baseball Series, as both share the 3rd seat together with Matanzas and Las Tunas with 7 wins and 5 losses, only surpassed by the pointer Ciego de Ávila (9-3) and Industriales (8-4), in that order.
In other games, Ciego de Avila will bump into Cienfuegos (5-7), Industriales with Granma (5-4), Pinar del Rio (4-6) with Las Tunas, Matanzas will host Isla de la Juventud (6-6), Sancti Spiritus (6-5) to Holguin (5-7), Santiago de Cuba (6-6) with Camagüey (3-9), while Guantánamo (6-6) will go against Mayabeque (2-10).
And regarding baseball, it was known that the Cuban star Yulieski Gourriel successfully completed his 1st season with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of the Japanese Baseball League (Nippon Professional Baseball, NPB), where he closed with a double in 4 at-bats and closed the campaign with 305 average (239-73), 22 doubles, 11 homers and 33 extra-base hits in 62 games that served him to elevate the slugging to 536.
On the field, he scored 46 runs, drove in 30, stole 3 bases in 3 attempts, committed 6 errors and basically served in the 2nd base, but also defended 3rd his traditional position in Cuba.
Volleyball U-23
Cuba seeks today one of the tickets to the final of the II Pan-American Cup U-23 against Dominican Republic, which ends on Friday in Havana.
Cubans preserved their unbeaten pace on Tuesday in 3 outings with a 3-0 victory over El Salvador, while Dominicans files 2 wins and 1 reverse, after falling to Mexico 3-2 yesterday.
As in the previous day, Cubans made too many mistakes, 20, and not left a good image, but Abraham Alfonso and Felix Chapman excelled in attacks with 16 and 9 points.
Dominican and Guatemalan teams are run by Cuban specialists, José Álvarez Cutiño and Reider Lucas, respectively.
Tomorrow's calendar covers Trinidad and Tobago vs. El Salvador, Guatemala and Dominican Republic, and Cuba against Mexico. The 2 first teams get 2 tickets to attend the World Cup on behalf of the CONCACAF.
FIFA U-21
Football teams of Cuba and El Salvador, U-21 category, will play their 2nd friendly match in San Salvador this Wednesday, preparatory cap for Veracruz 2014.
The 1st match, played on Monday in Santa Tecla, was won 2-1 by Cubans and today the 2nd and final challenge was rescheduled because the Caribbeans will travel to Honduras where they also have 2 clashes with its counterpart; thus, Cubans will have to play 2 games in less than 24 hours.
The Cuban coach Raúl González Triana, told Prensa Latina news agency that despite the tension, these clashes contribute to the preparation of his players to get in peak condition for the regional meet in Veracruz.
The specialist said that training is going well, according to plan, and hope to give another 2 or 3 games in Havana after this tour of Central America, before leaving for Mexico in early November.
Chess
Cuban GM Dominguez Leinier will seek his 1st win this Wednesday against Azeri Shariyar Mamedyarov in the 1st stage of the World Grand Prix taking place in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan.
Leinier, the best player in Latin America and the 2nd of the continent, accumulates 2 points on the lid for 4 draws and 1 loss, and will face opponents with white pieces for the 4th time. The Cuban goes in 9th place and is giving in 5.9 points of his personal Elo, while Mamedyarov owns 11th with 1.5 points thanks to 3 draws and 2 losses.
Leinier and Mamedyarov met twice in the previous Grand Prix, ending with 1 win and 1 draw in favor of Azerbaijan's.
The Grand Prix is held in Baku with 12 of the best world players under the All Against All system at 1 single lap, an event currently runs by Italian Fabiano Caruana and Israeli Boris Gelfand with 3.5 points.
