Cleveland Sports Forum

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Villa Clara - Santiago de Cuba, the best today in the Cuban baseball season

JOSE LUIS LOPEZ SADO

26 FEBRUARY 2022

Havana, Feb 26

Today there will be a new version of the Cuban baseball classic, Villa Clara - Santiago de Cuba, which will be played this weekend at the Augusto César Sandio stadium.

Villa Clara comes into the day riding a five game winning streak which has allowed them to share fifth, sixth and seventh places with the Industriales and Sancti Spíritus, all with a record of 12-10. Santiago de Cuba 15-8 occupies second place despite ranking 15th in defense with a poor average of 958.

For Villa Clara, left fielder Yurien Vizcaíno, who started the season well below his career average has shown considerable improvement to the point of being second in the league with home runs (7) as well as the Camagüeyan Alexander Ayala (7), both behind the leader Rafael Viñales from Las Tunas with (8).

Daniel Condes will pitch today for Villa Clara, while Danny Betancourt will pitch for Santiago de Cuba.

In addition, the league leader Matanzas 16-6 will play host to cellar dwellers Holguín 7-16 tied with Cienfuegos. Lefty Dariel Góngora, undefeated in three starts, will pitch for Matanzas and charismatic Rubén Rodríguez will climb to the mound for Holguín.

Mayabeque 14-8, occupying third place, will host reigning champions Granma 11-12, who shares the 9th, 10th, 11th, & 12th places in the standings with Las Tunas , Camagüey and Isla de la Juventud. Yadier Martínez will pitch for Mayabeque and Erluis Blanco will take the ball for Granma.

The remaining games will be Pinar del Río - Las Tunas (Yosvany Torres- Ángel Sánchez),

Artemisa - Camagüey (Misael Villa-Luis Mario Macías) and

Cienfuegos - Guantánamo (Hermes González-Alexander Valente).

The day will end with the Isla de la Juventud - Sancti Spíritus (Yunier Gamboa-Alex Guerra) and

Industriales - Ciego de Ávila (Maykel Taylor-Luis Marrero).

Sancti Spíritus leads theleague in batting (318),

Matanzas leads in pitching (2.86 era) and

Las Tunas in fielding (978).

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Tunero Viñales stands out in numbers of the 61 SNB (Series Nationale Baseball)

The eastern slugger leads the league in 3 offensive categories 2 in 4th

JIT Drafting

Saturday, February 26, 2022 11:01 AM

Havana.-

The 61 National Baseball Series enters today in its tenth subsets of games and among its statistical leaders is Rafael Viñales from Las Tunas.

Viñales leads the league in home runs (8), slugging (.803) and OPS (1,229), confirming his tremendous skills as a hitter in this league.

At this time, the best batting average in the season belongs to William Saavedra from Pinar del Río with .400, the only one batting over .400. Viñales trails in the second spot behind Saavedra with an overage of .394.

Another player from Las Tunas, Yordanis Alarcón, leads in hits with 37, while Yordanis Samón from Camagüey leads in doubles 13.

Fréderich Cepeda from Sancti Spiritus and Richel López from Cienfuegos lead the league in walks 24, while Yurién Vizcaíno (VCL) and Alberto Calderón (IND) lead in runs scored with 24.

Finally, Andrés Hernández from Havana (Industriales) leads the important department of RBIs with 26 and Eliseo Rojas from Pino del with an OBP of .537.

In pitching, Ciego de Avial's Yander Guevara continues to stand out, leader in wins with 5 and in innings pitched with 42 1/3.

The best earned run average is held by Yoannis Yera from Matanzas (1.17), while Andy Vargas from Havana has worked in the most games 12.

Pinar del Rio's Kendry Hernández rules in saves 4.

Carlos Juan Viera (LTU), Yoen Socarrás (SSP) and Juan Contreras Esquivel (CMG), all lead with 28 strikeout each.

With the all-star game getting closer, these and other names seem a safe bet to occupy spots on those rosters.

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Live Baseball From Cuba

Industriales vs Ciego de Avila

LIVE SATURDAY 02/26/2022 4pm est

https://youtu.be/1MOWv1mIP54

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Villa Clara, Artemisa and Cienfuegos pitcher Hermes González continue their winning ways

Cienfuegos pitcher Hermes González improves to 5-0

JIT Drafting

Saturday, February 26, 2022 08:56 PM

Havana.-

Villa Clara's winning streak improved to 6 in a row.

Artemisa's streak improved to 4 in a row.

Cienfuegos pitcher Hermes González reached his 5th in a row. González threw a complete game with just two hits allowed, one walk and five strikeouts as the Elefantes de Cienfuegos beat the Indios del Guantanamo 7-0.

Villa Clara beat the Wasps of Santiago de Cuba 5-4 despite committing four errors. With this win, aided by Leandro Turiño's home run, rose to fifth place in the standings that Matanzas continues to lead.

The Cazadores de Artemisa are also having a good time and today they beat the Toros de Camagüey 12-5. Dayán García homered and drove in four runs.

Pinar del Río beat Las Tunas 3-2. Yaser Julio González homered. Frank Luis Medina picked up his 5th save.

Isla de la Juventud defeated Sancti Spíritus 10-2, despite Fréderich Cepeda's homer.

The Hurricanes of Mayabeque slipped by Granma 3-2 despite Carlos Benítez's homer. Right-hander Yadián Martínez scored the complete game victory allowing seven hits, one walk and struck out three.

Holguín beat Matanzas 10-1.

Ciego de Ávila celebrated their win at the expense of the Industriales 8-2 with a home run and three RBIs by Abdel Civil.

The tenth subseries conclude this Sunday.

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Live Baseball From Cuba

Industriales vs Ciego de Avila

LIVE SUNDAY 02/27/2022 1pm est

https://youtu.be/LOtRPdyrCpE

11 Years On: Tsunami-Hit City Pins Hopes on Baseball Field

"Miracle Pine Tree" Survives the huge earthquake and tsunami 11 years ago.

Feb 25, 2022

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Rikuzentakata, Iwate Pref., Feb. 25 (Jiji Press)--

Local residents are pinning hopes on a baseball field nicknamed after a famous pine tree as a new symbol for Rikuzentakata, a northeastern Japan city severely damaged by the huge earthquake and tsunami 11 years ago.

The baseball field is in the city's athletic park, located near what used to be a scenic coastal forest of some 70,000 pine trees. The tsunami caused by the earthquake on March 11, 2011, swept away all the trees but one.

After the sole tree, known as "kiseki no ipponmatsu," which means "miracle lone pine tree," the facility was nicknamed the Rakuten Eagles Ipponmatsu Baseball Stadium.

The Iwate Prefecture city previously had a baseball field next to the forest. It was wiped out by the tsunami, however, four days before repair work was to finish in time for a game between the farm teams of professional baseball clubs. Only a lighting tower was left.

Although the city struggled to find a new location and reconstruction funds for the baseball field, the facility was completed in August 2020.

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Seventh victory in a row for Villa Clara in Cuban baseball

JIT Drafting

Sunday, February 27, 2022 07:31 PM

Havana.-

The Villa Clara Naranjas swept the Santiago de Cuba Wasps and achieved their seventh victory in a row.

The weekend provided a total of four sweeps by Ciego de Ávila, Artemisa, Pinar del Río and of course Villa Clara. The worst streak at this time belongs to Industriales at 4.

Villa Clara had a comfortable 9-1 win over Santiago de Cuba. The winner was Elier Carrillo who pitched six innings without allowing a run and just three hits. Villa Clara 13 hits, including a home run by Yuri Marcos Fernández who drove in three runs. Santiago de Cuba used eight pitchers and committed two errors. Riding the 7 game winning streak, Villa Clara remains in fifth place in the standings, three games behind the league leading Matanzas Crocodiles.

The other good winning streak in progress belongs to the Cazadores de Artemisa, who this Sunday beat the Toros de Camagüey 14-8 at home. In that duel, the benches "emptied" during and after the game in a more than unfortunate event.
Those ejected from the game for Camagüey were Leslie Anderson, Ángel Luis Márquez, Javier del Pino and Julio Raizán Montesinos, Yuniesky García, Sandro Tornés and José Antonio Jiménez were ejected for Artemisa. In addition, Osbel Pacheco ended up in the showers for protesting a balls and strikes call. Right-hander José Ángel García scored his sixth save of the season. Camagüey's Leonel Moa, Alexander Ayala and Asniel Fonseca all had home runs.

The Vegueros de Pinar del Río overcame Las Tunas 7-0 with a masterful start from Erlis Casanova (4-0) in eight innings surrendered just two hits, gave walked three and struck out two.

The Sancti Spíritus Roosters delivered a KO in seven innings to Isla de la Juventud supported by Ernesto Zerquera's complete game effort of 2 hits, 4 walks, and 3 strikeouts. Yunier Mendoza's lead the offense 4-2, 3rbi.

Matanzas holds on to first place in the standings with a 9-2 win over Holguín. There were three homers in the game. Yasiel González homered for Holguin. Ariel Sánchez and Yadil Dreke homered for Matanzas.

Granma put an end to a string of defeats by beating the Hurricanes of Mayabeque 7-5.

Guantánamo defeated Cienfuegos 12-9 with two homers by Pedro Pablo Revilla and one by Over Cremet. Yusniel Ibáñez homered for Cienfuegos.

Finally, the Tigres de Ciego de Ávila completed their sweep against the Industriales 8-7 in a come from behind win. Raúl González and Abdel Civil hit home runs. Civil homered for the second straight day.

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Cuban pitcher Erlis Casanova, the most dominant in the 61st National Series.

Deficiencies, leadership and some numbers after the first third of the Cuban National Baseball Series

The low quality of the championship season goes up in smoke when we see the standings and understand that at this point any team still has a chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

Enrique Del Pozo

Havana 28 Feb 2022

The 61st edition of the Cuban National Baseball Series has already completed a third of its calendar in the qualifying phase and several takes can be made at this stage , most of them not at all positive for a sport that has been bottoming out on the Island the past few years ago.

Despite the good crowds in the stadiums, logical due to the lack of recreational options for most of the young people, Cuban baseball continues to fall into an abyss, beginning with its own managers .

The absurd punishment of the two players who had interviews with a Facebook group, the refusal of some managers and players to offer statements to accredited web sites news outlets as a result of this scandal, and the lack of firmness in the face of no discipline and rudeness that is experienced daily on the field, these are just a few points that tarnish this season.

Poorly prepared umpires, the tight strike zones, and daytime games that prevent teams from practicing are elements that come together to continue whipping the national pastime on all fronts.

However, baseball is loved so much in these Caribbean places, that in the midst of all these obstacles, fans continue to follow their favorite teams in search of the flashes that make this sport great.

After this last week's games, team batting (.291 average) and earned runs allowed per game (4.94) decreased . But the lack of control of the pitchers continued , who conceded 4.75 walks per nine innings, and the defense continued to set off alarms by falling one point below the 970 average, something that had not happened for several seasons.

But all this takes a backseat on this atypical island, because what really matters, although criticism rains down after each day, is the tremendous competitiveness that exists in the league and how it exacerbates passions in the provinces every year.

The low quality of the championship season goes up in smoke when we see the standings and understand that at this point any team still has a chance of qualifying for the playoffs, and this, I confess, is exciting for any sports competition.

After this Sunday's games, in which there were four weekend sweeps, Matanzas , with a record of 17-7, has managed to take a two game lead over Mayabeque 15-9 and two and a half games lead over Santiago de Cuba and Ciego de Avila 15-10.

They are followed closely by the teams from Villa Clara 14-10, Sancti Spíritus and Artemisa 13-11, and Industriales 12-12 just five games behind first place.

Then comes a very compact group that can jump at any moment and mess up the standings. Pinar del Rio, La Isla Juventud, and Granma 12-13, Las Tunas and Camagüey 11-14, Guantánamo 9-16), and the tied teams of Holguín and Cienfuegos 8-17, less than five games away from the top eight places which are the qualifying positions for post season play.

The top individual leaders, Carlos de la Tejeda (ART) has the one with the best offensive average (.419) and the one with the most hits (39), tied with Yordanis Alarcón (LTU).

Alexander Ayala (CMG) and Rafael Viñales (LTU) are the top home run leaders (8) , and Andrés Hernández (IND) has the most runs (26).

The top pitchers are Yander Guevara (CAV) and Hermes González (CFG) with (5) wins. Luis Fonseca (SCU) has (8) saves. Yoanni Yera (MTZ) has the most strikeouts (31) and Erlis Casanova (PRI) has been the most dominant to the extreme of allowing just 1.23 earned runs per game with a 0.68 WHIP, making him a leader in both departments.

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STANDIINGS 03/01/2022

1. Matanzas 17 7
2. Mayabeque 16 9
3. Santiago de Cuba 15 10
4. Ciego de Avila 15 10
5. Villa Clara 14 10
6. Sancti Spiritus 13 11
7. Artemisa 13 11
8. Industriales 12 12

---------------------TOP 8 AUTOMATICALLY QUALIFIES FOR POST SEASON

9. Granma 12 13
10. Pinar del Rio 12 13
11. Isla Juventud 12 13
12. Las Tunas 11 14
13. Camaguey 11 14
14. Guantanamo 9 16
15. Cienfuegos 8 17
16. Holguin 8 18

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Contreras the MVP for the second consecutive week

Another Contreras reigns on the mound from Camagüey

Monday, February 28, 2022

Many times on the mound of Capitán San Luis Sports Stadium in PInar del Rio, the fans were treated to the brilliant performances of José Ariel Contreras (NYY, CWS, COL, PHIL, PITT), but this Tuesday it was another Contreras who would shine on the mound in Pinar del Río and he was not wearing the Jersey of the Pinar Del Rio Vegueros.

We are talking about the 22 year old Juan Sebastián Contreras from Camagüey, who has become the great revelation of pitching this season. The right-hander threw a jewel again and handcuffed the Vegueros 3-0.

Contreras' win came just a few hours after being awarded as the MVP for last week's performance. Contreras took it to the Vegueros and was totally in command for seven innings in which he only allowed two hits, struck out six, and walked three.

This is Contreras' second win this season against the Vegueros after defeating them on February 6. On that occasion, he also finished seven innings with four hits and one earned run.

The right-hander has become the main trump card for the Bulls as illustrated by his numbers in the last five games. In that span, he has pitched 37 innings, with 33 strikeouts, 10 walks and six earned runs allowed, for a 1.46 ERA. In addition, he has only surrendered 19 hits in 129 official at-bats. The batting average against is just .147.

Contreras puts Camagüey back on the road to success after being swept away last weekend in Artemisa. Now the Camagüey team has a record of 12-14 and are still below the qualifying line, although not by far from a postseason positions.

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Live Baseball From Cuba

Granma vs Matanzas

GRANMA 2021 CHAMPIONS VS MATANZAS 2021 RUNNER UP

LIVE TUESDAY 03/01/2022 1pm est

https://youtu.be/pklc3FOxyvg

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Villa Clara extends Cuban baseball winning streak

Villa Clara beat Guantánamo 5-4; Winning streak reached 8 games

Taken from Latin Press

Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Havana.-

Villa Clara defeated Guantánamo 5-4 to raise their winning streak to eight games, best streak of the season in front of the home crowd at the Augusto César Sandino stadium.The Azucareros decided the game with a three-run rally in the eighth inning and the decisive run in the ninth. In a reliever role, Pedro Manuel Castillo (2-1, 2.0 INN, 0R) received the victory. Shortstop Magdiel Gómez 5-3, 1RBI and first baseman Reidel Pedraza 4-2, 1RBI starred on offense in a battle fought from start to finish.
On the other hand, flamethrower Yeudis Reyes (2-1, 2.0INN, 4R, 5H, 1K, 5BB) was disapppinted with his performance losing the dominance in his pitches. The offense, however, was a different story. Along these lines, it is worth noting the multi hit game of Eulogio Marcilli (2B, 3-2, 1RBI), Luis Ángel Sánchez (3B, 4-3, 1R, 1RBI), Robert Luis Delgado (RF, 4-2, 1RBI) and Pedro Pablo Revilla (1B, 3-2, 1R, 1RBI, 1HR), author of the only home run of the game. After this result, Villa Clara established themselves at the top of the standings thanks to a record of 15-10. Guantánamo dropped to fourteenth in the standings with a record of 9-17.

In other action, Camagüey over Pinar del Río 3-0, Artemisa over Las Tunas 7-6, Mayabeque over Holguín 7-5 , Granma over Matanzas (9x4), and Santiago de Cuba over Cienfuegos 8-4.

The Industriales and Sancti Spíritus game will be played this evening.

Despite the loss, Matanzas 17-8 leads the standings ahead of Mayabeque 16-9, Santiago 16-10, Villa Clara, Ciego de Avila 15-10, Artemisa 14-11, Sancti Spíritus 13-11 and Granma 13-13) occupants of the postseason positions.

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Live Baseball From Cuba

Granma vs Matanzas

GRANMA 2021 CHAMPIONS VS MATANZAS 2021 RUNNER UP

LIVE WEDNESDAY 03/02/2022 1pm est GAME 2 IN THE SERIES

https://youtu.be/phVIj7T6Wfs

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Villa Clara winning streak reaches nine in a row

Villa Clara with solid pitching and a productive offense posted their highest mark for consecutive wins in the last 13 years.

Taken from Latin Press

Wednesday, March 02, 2022 10:09 PM

Havana.-

The Azucareros of Villa Clara once again defeated the Indios de Guantánamo 6-2. A solid pitching performance and a productive offense posted their highest mark for consecutive wins in the last 13 years. The fete was accomplished in the 48th National Series and for the fourth time in history. Right-handed pitcher Oscar Hernández (2-2, 6.2INN, 2R, 2ER, 5H, 5K, 3BB) had a quality start. Reliever Randy Cueto (2.1INN, 0R, 1H), got the save after completing 2.1 scoreless innings, just one hit, three strikeouts. At home, Villa Clara had 11 hits. Second baseman Magdiel Gómez (5-3, 2RBI, 2R, 1-3B, 1HR), left fielder Juan Carlos López (4-3, 1R, 1RBI), and catcher Julio Enrique Miranda (4-2, 1-2B). Guantánamo lost their second game in a row against the Azucareros. Despite his creditable performance, starter Daniel Blanco (1-6, 5.0, 3R, 6H, 1K, 3BB) endured his sixth loss of the season.

On the day, Pinar del Río over Camagüey 6-2, Las Tunas over Artemisa(2-0, Holguín over Mayabeque 17-4, Matanzas over Granma 5-4, and Santiago de Cuba over Cienfuegos 16-12. Industriales beat Sancti Spíritus 8x4 at night. Ciego de Avila and Isla de la Juventud split a double header 2-5 & 5-3.

After these games, Matanzas 18-8 leads the standings ahead of Santiago 17-10, Mayabeque 16-10, Villa Clara 16-10, Ciego 16-11, Artemisa 14- 12, Sancti Spíritus 13-12)and Industriales 13-12, owners of the places with access to the postseason.

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Live Baseball From Cuba

Granma vs Matanzas

GRANMA 2021 CHAMPIONS VS MATANZAS 2021 RUNNER UP

LIVE THURSDAY 03/03/2022 1pm est GAME 3 IN THE SERIES

https://youtu.be/9fXzdXpz_lE