Santa Clara, April 17 (PL)-- Leopardos de Villa Clara extended its winning streak to five, the best at the moment, by beating Santiago de Cuba 6-3 in the Cuban baseball season, which continues to be led by Pinar del Rio, although it lost to Matanzas 8-7 in the most recent date.
In Villa Clara's victory, pitcher Alaín Sánchez signed his second win of the campaign and his 95th of his life, helped by home runs by Ariel Pestano and Leonardo Montero, who hit 4-3, including a double.
The Cocodrilos de Matanzas withstood the push of the leaders Vegueros de Pinar in the late stages, to seal the victory of Noelvis Entenza with the fourth save of Armando Dueñas.
Reigning champion Las Tunas maintained its upward pace by blanking Ciego de Avila 7-0, thus snatching second place in the standings from the Tigres.
Pitcher Eliander Bravo secured the victory with five impeccable innings, while Dennis Peña took the offensive lead with three hits, including a double, a triple and four RBIs.
In the most dominant game of the pitchers, Cienfuegos defeated Holguin 1-0 with a complete work of Daniel Perez, who allowed only two hits and struck out seven opponents.
Mayabeque overcame Camagüey 9-4, supported by the work of Albert Valladares, who added his fourth win, and by Dennis Laza's 5-3 bat, including a pair of runs and four towers.
Laza took the lead in the number of runs in the championship (35), one more than William Saavedra from Pinar del Río.
The Sancti Spíritus team also showed recovery, winning its first game of the week against La Isla by 11-8, with a great contribution from Carlos Gómez, 5-3 and three RBIs.
In the only night game, Granma came from behind with four runs in the ninth inning to defeat Industriales (10-9), led by Alfredo Despaigne (5-4) and Alexquémer Sánchez (3-3, with his ninth home run).
The match between La Isla and Guantánamo was suspended and this Wednesday they will play a doubleheader.
The table is still led by Pinar del Río (19-9), followed by Las Tunas (15-8), Ciego de Ávila (18-10), Industriales and Granma (16-12), Camagüey (15-13), Artemisa (14-13), Matanzas and Villa Clara (14-14), in the first positions.
Completing the table are Sancti Spíritus and Santiago de Cuba (13-15), Mayabeque and Holguín (11-17), La Isla (9-14) Guantánamo (10-17) and Cienfuegos (10-18).
