Matanzas leads comfortably Cuban national baseball series

HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 30 (acn) With an overwhelming performance that includes four sweeps in the six subseries made to date, Matanzas is heading for an early qualification in the Cuban baseball championship.

In their latest subseries, the Matanzas Crocodiles swept Las Tunas to extend their streak to seven straight wins and appear on top of the standings with excellent balance of 16-2, three and a half games ahead of Camagüey (12-5).
Matanzas´ next rival will precisely be Camagüey, which stands out as one of the big surprises of the National Series in its 56 edition by being among the privileged positions in the early stages of the season.
Villa Clara (10-5) kept the third seat despite losing a couple of times to Isla de la Juventud (7-10), while Holguin (11-7) and the current monarch Ciego de Avila (11-7) were ratified in upper positions by winning 2-1 their subseries over Artemisa (6-12) and Granma (9-8), respectively.
The current runner-up, Pinar del Río (7-10), and Industriales (7-10), two of the leading exponents of Cuban baseball and favorites to be included in the next phase, appear today outside the qualifying zone, as both are immersed in an uncertain start this season.
Pinar del Rio and Sancti Spiritus (6-11) could only play two games, one win to each, in a subseries affected by rains, while Industriales could barely win once in its visit to Guantanamo (9-9) to accentuate its marked downward trend.
In addition to the attractive match Camagüey-Matanzas, the National Baseball Series continues on Wednesday with the subseries Industriales-Las Tunas, Isla de la Juventud-Holguin, Mayabeque-Granma, Villa Clara-Pinar del Rio, Sancti Spiritus-Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba-Artemis and Guantanamo-Ciego de Avila.
Below the standings of Cuban baseball:
W L AVE. DIF.
MTZ 16 2 889 -
CMG 12 5 706 3.5
VCL 10 5 667 4.5
CAV 11 7 612 5.0
HOL 11 7 612 5.0
GRA 9 8 530 6.5
LTU 9 8 530 6.5
GTM 9 9 500 7.0
CFG 8 10 445 8.0
PRI 7 10 412 8.5
IND 7 10 412 8.5
IJV 7 10 412 8.5
SCU 6 11 353 9.5
SSP 6 11 353 9.5
ART 6 12 334 10.0
MAY 4 13 236 11.5