Cuban baseball team to compete at World Classic continues training in Asia

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 28 (ACN) In the best exhibition so far in its tour around Asia, the Cuban team that is preparing to take part in the upcoming 5th World Baseball Classic defeated 4-0 the Wei Chuan Dragons club, from the professional league of Taipei, China.

Mentor Armando Jhonson's team worked perfectly in all three aspects of the game, especially the pitching -without a doubt their strongest point-, since among the four pitchers, they tied up the opponent's offense, barely accepted two singles and struck out a whopping 16 times.

Special mention should be made of right-hander Yariel Rodriguez, who serves as a closer for his club Chunichi Dragons at NPB and who in these practice games is being used as a starter and has done so excellently. His fastball went 97 miles and he pitched four complete innings with just one hit and six strikeouts.

His relievers maintained full control over the Taiwanese team. They were left-handers Onelki Garcia and Yoenni Yera -the latter struck out four times against five batters- and Raidel Martinez, who exercised authority with his fastball.

Cuban team opened the scoring in the third inning with a pair of runs on a double by Yoelkis Guibert, a triple by Arruebarrena and a ground ball by Alfredo Despaigne. The remaining two runs came on solo home runs by Despaigne and Arruebarrena in the eighth and ninth innings, in that order.