The Cuban team has overwhelmed its rivals in the first Baseball5 World Cup, which is being held in the Zócalo, Mexico City, and is emerging as the favorite.
On Wednesday morning they defeated Hong Kong twice, with scores of 12-3 and 10-0 (knockout).
They also had no mercy in the two games against the locals. That night they were awarded the first super knockout of the championship (21-0) and, later, the second knockout of the date (10-0).
The Cuba team produced 53 runs on Wednesday (the third of the championship) and only received three.
The most outstanding were Orlando Amador, Briandy Molina and Roivelis Núñez, who reached base 56 of the 68 times they batted, for an OBP (on-base percentage) of 823.
The team manager, Pablo Terry, commented: “The team has gone from less to more. On this same day we started cold against Hong Kong and then all the technical-tactical instructions were followed to the letter. We try to make at least five runs in the first two innings to rotate the players with the substitutes and that they all arrive well in the decisive games”.
Briandy Molina, one of the best players in the tournament, referred to the objective of the Cuba team: “It cannot be other than to win the crown to dedicate it and share it with the teammates who could not be here due to health problems. Before the game we promised Coach Terry that we would give Mexico a super knockout and we did. We had very good preparation in Cuba and the results are already coming out in the competition”.
With the four victories on the third day, Cuba secured its place in the super round. They are followed by Japan (3-1), and Mexico and Lithuania, with 2-2. The bottom of group A are South Africa (1-3) and Hong Kong (0-4).
Group B is led by Venezuela with 4-0, followed by Taiwan (3-1), France and Tunisia (2-2), Kenya (1-3) and South Korea (0-4).
Cuba’s last match in the qualifying phase was this Thursday, at 12:30 p.m. (our country time) against Japan.
(With information from JIT)