Yoennis Yera

Taipei, Nov 18 (PL) Today, the Cuban baseball team lost 0-2 to the hosts of China Taipei in the last game of the group stage of the III Premier 12, a tournament attended by the best-ranked countries in the world.

After being eliminated the day before from the possibility of reaching the finals by losing to the undefeated Japanese, the team coached by Armando Johnson could not prevail against the locals who, although they already had their ticket to the next stage in their pocket, did not give anything away to the Antilleans.

Starter Yoennis Yera, who had thrown six unblemished innings against the Dominican Republic on the opening day, gave away a ticket in the third inning and allowed a homer by designated hitter Kungkuan Giljegiljaw that brought in the Asian team's first run.

One inning later, their opponents scored another run without taking the ball out of the box, when they combined another base on balls with two singles and a run that opened the doors to the plate.

Enough advantage for a parade of seven pitchers who between them gave up 11 strikeouts and accepted four hits to a Cuban team that once again proved to be in debt with the bat.

Reliever Yusniel Padrón, although he allowed three hits, including a pair of doubles, managed to put two runs on the board, and Yankiel Mauri and Leodan Reyes got the last six outs, but his team never reacted.

With this setback, the squad of the largest Caribbean island concluded the tournament with just one win and four losses and could not meet the goal of improving the sixth place obtained in the first edition of 2015.

Next Wednesday in the Land of the Rising Sun, the so-called super round will begin with the presence of Venezuela and the United States, qualified for the American zone, and the teams of Japan and Chinese Taipei, who won their places in the Asian key.