Baseball: Cuba to play US Collegiate team in Havana today

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 10 (ACN) The Cuban baseball team that will take part in the upcoming Central Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, and the U.S. collegiate team, will begin this Tuesday a five-game match at the Latin American stadium in Havana.
This is the seventh match after the interesting and traditional duels restarted in 2012. In the previous six matches, the record of wins has been 4-2 for the Americans, who have won 16 of their 30 games.
The U.S. teams won 5-0 in 2013, 3-2 in 2015 and 3-2 in 2017, always as hosts, as well as the 3-2 duel of 2016, staged in stadiums in Ciego de Avila, Havana and Pinar del Rio cities.
Meanwhile, Cuba won the bilateral tops in 2012 (3-2, at the Latin American stadium) and 2014 (5-0, at Pinar del Rio and Matanzas).
In view of the regional competition, in which they will make their debut against Mexico on the 20th, the Cuban team played several friendly matches last month against the Venezuelan and Colombian teams, which will also attend the baseball tournament in Barranquilla.
Meanwhile, the US university players, have just beaten China's Taipei national team in five games, as well as three successes and just one failure against Japan's representative.
Statistics from those nine matches in Asian stadiums show that the Americans hit very little, but their pitchers, many of them with sustained speed over 90 miles, have completed the task. Besides, the defense has been excellent.
According to the line-ups used by Manieri in those nine matches against Taipei and Japan, he could open today with Zach Watson (cf), Dominic Fletcher (rf), Adley Rutschman (c), Andrew Vaugh (1b) and the youngster of just the first year of school, Daniel Cabrera (lf), considered the best talent of the group.
In addition, they would also go to Bryan Packard (bd), Josh Jung (3b), Bryson Stott (ss) and Braden Shewmake (2b). For Cuba, the mentor Victor Figueroa announced that Roy Hernandez will be his starter.
Cuba will undoubtedly be able to take advantage of these five matches, as their batters will face high quality pitchers despite their young age, and in Barranquilla, the pitching will be weaker.