Baseball

Ciego de Ávila was ratified in 1st place of 54th Cuban Baseball Championship by knocking out Cienfuegos 11-1 to score its 3rd successful straight win while getting away 2 games from Industriales that lost to Granma.

On Thursday, the Avilanians' Los Tigres deployed a 13 hits offensive, especially for the outfielder Yoelvis Fiss and emerging batters Abdel Civil and Gerson Molina with 2 trailers per capita, while reliever Denis Castillo filed his 2nd win by allowing 1 hit in 2 and a half chapters.

In turn, Industriales got away 2 games from the top to succumb 11-1 to an aggressive Granma's offensive led by 1st baseman Yordanis Samon who hit 4-2 with 3 RBIs and Roel Santos, 3-2, with 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored.

Meanwhile, the star Ismel Jiménez pitched complete game with 5 strikeouts and allowed just 1 clean to lead a 3-1 Sancti Spiritus' victory over Holguin, supported by Yunier Mendoza's offensive, 3-2, with 2 trailers.

Santiago de Cuba produced 3 at the end of the 10th to leave Camagüey on the field by 6-5, in a duel marked by 3 homers of veteran Reutilio Hurtado for the cause of Las Avispas, while Dary Bartolomé homered by the defeated.

In other stops, Villa Clara won 3-0 to Artemisa thanks to solid pitching performance of lefty Robelio Carrillo and Ramon Lunar's homer, while Matanzas deployed a 13 hits offensive to overwhelm 11-3 to Isla de la Juventud, and Mayabeque ordered 3-0 to Guantanamo.

And regarding baseball, Cuba received with Honors to its best slugger, Alfredo Despaigne, who was given a warm welcome in his hometown of Bayamo, capital of Granma province.

Flowers, a recognition certificate, the greeting of the local and visiting players, and the continuous applause from the fans, made the evening unforgettable for the Cuban star who played 45 games with the Chiba Lotte Marines, Japanese professional baseball league, ending with an average of 311, including 50 hits and 12 homers.

Volleyball

Cuba will discuss with Mexico today the crown of 2nd U-23 Pan-American Volleyball Cup (m), based at the Sports City Coliseum here in Havana.

The day before, Cuba had defeated 3-0 (25-19, 25-13, 25-22) to the Dominican Republic, in a game where Cuban Osmani Uriarte was top scorer with 15 points.

Both teams, already qualified for the World Championship 2015 will again see the faces after the Cuban victory yesterday against Mexicans by 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-15), a match that originally pictured a black and white leading spot in the 1st preliminary stage under the All Against All system.

The disciples of Rodolfo Sánchez, who got all their hits in 3 sets, top the Standings with 23 points, 5 wins and no losses, followed by Mexico (17-4-1), Dominican Republic (15-3-2), Guatemala (9-2-3), Trinidad and Tobago (4-1-4), and El Salvador (1-0-5).

There will also be actions between Guatemalans and the Dominicans for the bronze, while Trinitarians and Salvadorans will clash for the 5th place.

Chess

Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez will seek today to improve his punctuation at the Chess Grand Prix that takes place in Baku, when facing off his Russian counterpart Peter Svidler in the 8th round.

Dominguez, with a rating of 2751 points, tied with Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov (2726) in 32 moves of a Gruenfeld defense on Thursday.

U-21 Soccer

Cuban and Honduran under 21 men's soccer teams will play today the first of 2 friendly training matches towards the Central American and Caribbean Games, Veracruz 2014, next November.

Cubans will depart today to Tegucigalpa from El Salvador, where they played 2 other friendly caps against locals, which also owns a ticket for the regional event.

The result was favorable to the Caribbeans on Monday after winning the first match (2-1) and drew a few hours ago in the last one (1-1), where Cuban Yaudel Lahera, one of 3 players older than 21 years old who were permitted to be included in the roster for this tournament, and his teammate, Arichel Hernández, led the winning drive.

The young Cubans, members of the squad that attended the U-20 World Cup Turkey 2013, will end their Central Caribbean tour on Saturday, with the 2nd match against the Hondurans.