Havana, May 16 (RHC)-- With an offense of 13 hits and as a visitor, Santiago de Cuba defeated Las Tunas 10-7 on Monday and remained at the top of the LXII National Baseball Series, which dropped the curtains of its ninth particular sub-series.
At the Julio Antonio Mella Stadium, the Avispas relied on the lumber of their third bat Yoelkis Guibert, who hit 4-3 with a double and three towers. This was Alberto Bisset's fourth victory, despite conceding 11 hits in 6.1 innings; but he only conceded one ticket, and Luis Angel Torres' fifth save (2.2, 5 hits).
Santiago now has a 26-19 record and is separated by one game from the inspired Mayabeque, which signed its fifth consecutive success by defeating Artemisa 2-1 in an excellent duel between Yadián Martínez and Yunieski García, who pitched all nine inning at the Nelson Fernández Park, in San José de las Lajas.
Yadián allowed nine hits and conceded six bases on balls. Alexander Pozo (4-2) batted for the Hurricanes.
Meanwhile, as visitors, Sancti Spíritus defeated national runner-up Matanzas (5-2) for the fourth successive time, at the Victoria de Girón stadium, with a win for Fernando Betanzo and the seventh save for closer Yanielquis Duardo. Lázaro Fernández went 4-2, with a home run and four RBIs, to lead the Gallos to success.
In addition, Ciego de Avila and Cienfuegos played a doubleheader and split the honors. First the Tigres won 6-1 and then the Elefantes won 5-2.
In the remaining results, Industriales gave the third blow in this sub-series to Villa Clara (7-0), La Isla won 10-3 against Pinar del Río, the monarch exponent Granma 5-3 against Guantánamo and Camagüey 1-0 against Holguín, with a two-handed blow by starter Mario Marzo and his reliever Riquelme Odelín, both with participation in only one national series.
At the end of the ninth sub-series (up to game 45 and 30 remain), Santiago de Cuba leads (26-19), followed by Mayabeque (25-19), while La Isla, Matanzas and Holguin are 24-20, followed by Artemisa, Sancti Spíritus and Pinar del Río (23-20) closing the classification zone. Then come Ciego de Avila (22-20), Las Tunas (22-21), Villa Clara (21-22), Industriales (20-24), Camagüey (20-25) and Granma (19-26), while Guantánamo and Cienfuegos share the cold basement (17-27).