Cuba loses 0-5 to Puerto Rico in debut of U23 World Baseball Cup

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 14 (ACN) Victim of its very poor offense, the Cuban U23 baseball team fell 0-5 to Puerto Rico on Thursday, in its debut at the World Championship held at the Tianmu Stadium in Taipei, China, a tournament in which games are played in seven innings.

The Cuban team could barely hit two singles against four pitchers, all with pitches over 90 miles.

With such terrible offensive support, it is impossible to achieve a good result. The two hits came from right fielder Cristian Hidalgo, who gave a double in the first inning to starter Alexander Castro, and from Cuban middle infielder Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, on a bunt at the beginning of the sixth inning.

And since the batting was absent, the Cubans could not take advantage of the five walks and the ball hit by the Puerto Rican pitchers.

Puerto Rico scored its first two runs in the fourth inning against starter and loser Naykel Cruz.

Relievers Andy Vargas and Alex Guerra were not controlled and gave three successive tickets. For today Cuba has scheduled a duel against the Australian team and the starter will be left-hander Oscar Hernandez.