Havana, July 21  (RHC) -- Cuba's Yilian Tornés signed this Friday another gem of a pitching performance in Cuba's 2-1 victory over China in the ladies' softball World Cup held at the Municipal Stadium in Valencia, Spain, which awards two tickets to the 2024 World Cup in Italy.

Tornés, a member of the Caronno club of the A1 series of professional softball in Italy, relied on her good control, put the ball where she wanted and threw the complete game to the tune of 13 strikeouts, two walks and only four hits allowed to the batting leader in this competition. The left-hander from the Granma municipality of Jiguaní obtained her third victory of the tournament.

The two Cuban runs came in the third inning, driven in by captain and leadoff runner Yilian Rondón and by starter Yanisleidys Casanova, who went 3-1 and now has a high average of 600 (12-8).

With this result, the pupils of mentor Jorge Lamas closed the qualifying phase with a 4-1 record (they lost 1-3 to Puerto Rico on Thursday), similar to that of the Chinese team, which lost its unbeaten record on the day.

Now the Cubans and Chinese are waiting for the outcome of the game between Spain and Puerto Rico. A Puerto Rican victory, which has a record of three wins and one loss, would cause a three-way tie for first place and the TQB formula -the statistics between the three tied teams- would have to be used to determine which team ends up as leader.