Alfredo Despaigne

Bayamo, March 20 (PL) - Slugger Alfredo Despaigne shares the lead in home runs in the Cuban baseball season with five home runs and will leave Wednesday focused on completing 270 in his career in Cuban national championships.

The fourth bat of the Granma team hit his fifth home run of the tournament yesterday, which contributed to the Alazanes' 12-2 victory over the Holguin team.

Despaigne is playing his sixteenth season on the island, in which he has accumulated 268 round-trippers, which together with the 13 registered during two seasons in the Mexican league and the 184 of a decade in a couple of Japanese clubs, total 465.

His quality above the average of the current Cuban national series places him as the main candidate to top the list of home run hitters in the campaign, a position he now shares with Over Cremet from Guantanamo.

In Tuesday's game, Cremet also hit a home run, despite the Indians' 12-8 defeat against Camagüey, a team that won its fourth consecutive victory.

The day brought a pair of shutouts, Sancti Spíritus by 10-0 over Villa Clara and Artemisa against Mayabeque (4-0), while the remaining two games ended by the minimum, Industriales benefited from the rain to overcome Cienfuegos 7-6 in seven inning and La Isla left Santiago de Cuba in the field in ten chapters (4-3).

The leader Ciego de Avila left its game against Matanzas unfinished due to bad weather conditions and the Pinar del Rio-Las Tunas game was cancelled due to problems in the Leñadores' transportation.

The standings have Ciego de Avila in the lead with a 6-1 record, followed by Pinar del Rio and Las Tunas (5-2), then Sancti Spiritus, Granma and Industriales (5-3).

Then come Matanzas (4-3), Mayabeque, Artemisa and Camagüey (4-4), Santiago de Cuba, La Isla and Holguín (3-5) with Villa Clara, Guantánamo and Cienfuegos at the bottom (2-6).