Cuba beats Nicaragua in Friendly Baseball Match

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 24 (acn) Cuba knocked out Nicaragua 11-0 at this city's Latinoamericano Stadium in the second game of the friendly baseball match held as part of preparations for the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games.

Unlike the first game, the host team easily hit the Nicaraguan pitchers, who allowed 13 hits including the second homer of the series by Cuban DH William Saavedra.
Third baseman Yurisbel Gracial, and outfielders Jose Adolis Garcia and Yadiel Hernandez also highlighted for the winners with two RBIs per capita.
Lefty Yoanni Yera won the game by allowing only three hits in five innings, with eight strikeouts, while Jorge Bucardo took the loss.
Cuba and Nicaragua played again on Tuesday at the Capitan San Luis Stadium in Pinar del Rio; on Wednesday they will face each other at Nelson Fernandez ballpark, in San José de las Lajas, while the last game of the series will be on Thursday at the 26 de Julio Stadium, in Artemisa.
After the friendly match with the team of the Central American nation, the Cuban baseball squad will leave for the United States to play from July 1st through the 8th in the traditional bilateral match against the university squad of that country and in the so-called Festival of the Americas.
In the baseball event of the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, which will have the modernized Ajax President's Choice Pan American Baseball and Softball Center as its venue, Cuba will debut on July 11 against Colombia.
Then it will face the squads of the United States, Puerto Rico and the defending champion Canada, in that order, to close the qualifying phase against the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, in search for one of the four tickets to the semifinals.