HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 16 (acn) Solid pitching performance by the ace Freddy Asiel Alvarez propitiated the return of Villa Clara to the qualifying area of Cuban baseball by beating 3-0 Ciego de Ávila.
Alvarez allowed only five hits and struck out six in eight innings to earn his fourth win of the season, while Yasmany Hernández took the save.
Through his excellent performance on Monday, the right-hander improved his ERA to 1.07, the result of just eight runs allowed in 67 innings, to remain as leader of the tournament in this stat.
Also, Villa Clara rose to eighth seat of the standings with balance of 21 wins and 20 losses, taking advantage of the defeat of Santiago de Cuba (21-21), which fell to ninth place after losing 3-0 to Las Tunas (19-21).
Yoelkis Cruz also starred a pitching gem when allowing just four hits, with seven strikeouts, in eight and a third innings to lead Las Tunas to victory, supported by second baseman Yordan Batista, author of a homer and two RBIs.
Pinar del Río (19-19) fed their qualifying options by beating Cienfuegos 1-0 to complete the sweep in the subseries and tie in the ninth position of the standings with the Santiago Wasps.
In day marked by the great performance of several pitchers, Erlis Casanova allowed just two hits in seven innings, with seven strikeouts and was supported by Vladimir Gutierrez's save and Dairon Hernandez's offensive, who drove in the only run of the game.
Holguin ( 22-18) completed the sweep and climbed to fifth seat -shared with Isle of Youth, by walking off Mayabeque 6-5 thanks to decisive double by DH Lazaro Bent.
In yesterday's other matches, the leader Matanzas knocked out 11-0 Sancti Spiritus , Industriales defeated 12-7 Isla de la Juventud, Camagüey beat 4-3 Artemisa and Granma won 12-11 over Guantanamo.
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