Villa Clara beats Las Tunas, closes gap in playoff

Villa Clara achieved its first win in the third game of the grand final of the 58th Cuban National Baseball Series when beating 9-4 Las Tunas at home.

The team managed by Eduardo Paret was losing by two (2-4) in the sixth frame when they scored six times to take control of the actions.

The win went to RHP Freddy A. Alvarez despite allowing four runs and nine hits in 6.1 innings, while young reliever Pablo Guillen, he is only 20, earned the save and hit the headlines by pitching 2.2 scoreless innings with six strikeouts.

LHP Yoanni Yera took the loss when surrendering six earned runs and same amount of hits in 5.1 innings.

There were offensive highlight to 1B William Saavedra, who batted 3 for 4, including a homer and a double and 3 RBIs, and DH Carlos Benitez (3 for 3 including two doubles and 1 RBI), who extended his streak of consecutive hits to seven in this final play-off.

For the losing side, CF and lead-off hitter Yuniesky Larduet batted 3 for 5 with a double and 1 RBI and RF Andres Quiala hit 2 for 4, including a double and two RBIs.

With Las Tunas ahead 2-1, the fourth game of the final play-off will be today and the expected starting pitchers are right-hander Alain Sanchez, who lost the initial game of the final, and lefty Leandro Martinez, who hasn't seen action in this play-off.

(ACN)