Cuban Chi to face Venezuela in Under-23 Baseball World Cup

Havana, September 29 (RHC)-- Right-hander Bryan Chi will be the pitcher in charge of looking for Cuba's first success against Venezuela in the super round of the U-23 World Baseball Championship to be held in Mexico.

Chi, a native of Havana, will be making his second start of the tournament, after pitching in the preliminaries against the host, which he pitched five innings and two thirds with four hits allowed, two runs and six strikeouts with no walks.

With great concentration, the 22 year-old pitcher will try to handle the Venezuelan team that dominated the B section with four hits and one loss.

However, if he can do well, Chi will need the support of his teammates, who have been improving from the batter's box, especially in the previous game, in which they connected 10 hits with three men, filing two for their record.

The team coached by former catcher Eriel Sanchez, defeated the Dominican Republic 6-2 the day before to finish the qualifying phase at 4-1 and advance as runner-up in segment A behind Mexico.

After that result, and taking into account that qualifiers advance to the super round by winning against their group rivals, Mexico is 2-0, followed by Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama (1-1) and Taipei of China (0-2).

Hence, it will be vital that Chi does well and his teammates manage to produce at the right time, essentially the bulk of his offensive battery, namely Geisel Cepeda, Guillermo Garcia and Ivan Prieto, third, fourth and fifth lumber.

The day will be completed with the Taipei challenges of China-Colombia and Panama-Mexico, while in the consolation bracket, the Netherlands-Germany and the Czech Republic-Nicaragua will play.