Baseball

The Cuban star player Alfredo Despaigne debuted this Friday with his team Granma in the 54th National Baseball Series, after his return from Japan, where he had an outstanding performance in that country's top baseball league, the Chiba Lotte Marines.

Despaigne staged a return of quality when connecting 3-2 with 2 doubles as designated batter, although his team --now with 12 wins and 9 setbacks-- was defeated 5-0 by Camagüey, with great performance pitching of winner Arbelio Quiroz, and rescue of José Ramón Rodríguez.

The duel between Camagüey and Granma was the only one staged on Friday night, because the deteriorating weather conditions prevented the stop Industriales-Villa Clara, and the attractive clash Ciego de Ávila vs. Santiago de Cuba.

In evening hours, Matanzas ratified as leader to closely overtake Artemisa by 2-0 with the 3rd success of undefeated Cionel Perez, while Sancti Spiritus knocked out 10-0 to Isla de la Juventud, with outstanding pitching of young Aldo Conrad, who only allowed 1 hit in 7 episodes.

Finally, 2 separate homers of Yordán Manduley, Geidis Soler and Yoannis Quintana took Holguin 7-2 victory over Las Tunas, while the monarch Pinar del Río liquidated 9-3 to Guantánamo with offensive role of rookie and designated batter Lázaro Alonso, with 2 homers and 6 trailers.

Softball

With the dispute of 4 games after its opening ceremony, the 9th Pan-American Senior Championship in Softball began on Friday in the city of Paraná, Venezuela, at the Nafaldo Cargnel Stadium and the local El Plumazo Students Club Sports Complex.

The opening ceremony was presided over by the President of the Confederation of Softball and Baseball, Italian Riccardo Fraccari, the Intendant Blanca Osuna, National Deputy Julio Solanas, the President of the ISF, Dale Macmann, the International Olympic Committee member Melitón Sánchez, and the presidents of the Argentina Softball Confederation, Jacinto Cipriota, and his Paraná's counterpart, Mr. Duilio Scilácomo.

The main attraction of the opening day was the winning debut of Argentina of 2-0 over the Dominican Republic while Canada won 1-0 to Guatemala, Mexico beat 2-1 to Venezuela, and the United States won 1-0 to Cuba.

Today's schedule includes the duels of Cuba-Dominican Republic, Canada-Mexico, USA-Venezuela, and Guatemala vs. Argentina, in that order.

Donation of Baseball Bats by Gerardo Hernández

Bill Ryan, President of Solidarity with the 5 in Canada and an active member of the Committee to Free the Five, recently delivered, on behalf of the Hero of the Republic of Cuba, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, a donation of 4 baseball bats to young baseball players of Los Pinos Sport Council, Arroyo Naranjo municipality, of the Cuban capital.

The friendly ceremony, attended by official representatives, sports figures and local people, served to acknowledge the tireless work of Bill Ryan, appointed as "messenger of mankind" by the local Sports Council, who this time gave 4 hand-made bats produced by Gerardo for two local teams, 11-12 category.

Ryan said that the idea of making bats started 5 years ago and their quality is renowned for Sam Bat, a Canadian company that produces them for the Majors.

The visitor said Gerardo asked him to express that "...the bats must be used instead of hanging them like trophies on a wall, and when they break, then, they could be kept as a souvenir."

Chess

Cuban Lazaro Bruzon will confront today U.S. citizen Alexander Shabalov, in the most important match of the 9th round of the Continental Chess Tournament with scenario in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.

Bruzon, number one in the pre-qualification, will face Shabalov, leader of the tournament with 7 points out of 8.

The Cuban player defeated yesterday the also U.S citizen Gregori Kaidanov reaching the 2nd place and leading a quintet of contestants with 6.5 units.

This group includes Cuban Isam Ortiz, 4th by tiebreaker after overcoming Chilean Matias Perez, who will rival today the Peruvian Julio Granda, who goes 3rd.
Another important match for today will be the one between U.S. Samuel Shankland and Mexican Gilberto Hernandez, the other 2 with 6.5 units who will measured forces, the first of them with white pieces.

This Continental Chess Tournament, which involves about 200 players from 11 countries extended to 11 rounds by the Swiss System, grants 4 seats for the 2015 World Chess Cup.