Cuba lost but still in, Canada and Mexico get another chance

olympicbaseball September 6th, 2006

According to the Periódico 26, Cuba lost but still advanced to Olympic 2008 with USA, and Canada, Mexico will get one more shot to Beijing at a qualifier in Taipei to be held in March 2008.

Curtain Falls on Cuba Olympic Baseball Tournament
By SIGFREDO BARROS

The curtain fell Tuesday night for the Olympic baseball qualifying tournament for the Americas which took place in Havana, Cuba and began August 25. The United States and Cuba won the two births open for Beijing 2008, both finishing with 8-1 records.

The United States defeated Cuba 8-5 on five home runs in the action-packed final game including three off of Cuba’s World Baseball Classic star reliever Pedro Luis Lazo.

While the qualifiers were already decided, the match up between team USA and Cuba still brought out an estimated 45,000 fans at Havana’s Latinoamericano Stadium, in a game also watched by a national TV audience.
Nerves rattled in the first inning as Cuban starter Adiel Palma allowed the first three batters to load the bases on two hits and a hit batter. Manager Rey Vicente Anglada was taking no chances and sent the lefthander “who had won in two previous starts-” to the showers, bringing out righthander Yunieski Maya with the bases full and nobody out.
In spectacular fashion Maya struck out the cleanup hitter, got the fifth batter to roll to third for a force play at home and then closed the inning with another strike out.

While Cuba stranded a runner in the bottom of the first, Maya continued to dominate with his fastball and slider striking out all three batters he faced in the second. However, by the third inning, the hard slugging US batters sent out a warning signal that Maya’s fastball could be hit when Bobby Hill belted a solo homerun which would have been two runs if the leadoff hitter hadn’t been caught stealing.

As Cuba went down in order in the third against US starter righthander Keven Slowey, the team managed by Davey Johnson added three more in the fourth off Maya and Vichyoandri Odelin, including a homer by Michael Bourn off Maya and a two-run double by Mike Kinkade off Odelin.

Cuba left two runners on in the bottom of the fourth and Pedro Luis Lazo came on to pitch for the island in the fifth, charged with holding the US at four runs while Cuba played catch up. Lazo retired the side in the fifth and Cuba managed a run in the bottom of the inning on an RBI triple by Michel Enriquez who was stranded at third.

In the top of the sixth Bourn led off with his second homer of the night and the score was 5-1, but Cuba wasn’t giving up, loading the bases with nobody out in the sixth. Two sacrifice grounders put the score at 5-3 but outfielders Carlos Tabares and Giorvis Duvergel were unable to come up with the clutch hits off reliever Cox.

Then, in the seventh, Cuba finally caught up 5-5 after a two-run double by first baseman Alexander Mayeta. When it looked like the US might fall behind, reliever Lee Gronkiewicz, with a deadly change up, got DH Osmani Urrutia to fly out and catcher Ariel Pestano struck out to put out the fire.

In the eighth it was the US long ball that produced the winning runs as Brandon Wood hit a two run blast off Lazo, who also gave up another solo shot to pinch hitter Jarrod Saltalamacchi in the ninth.

USA Closer Henry Owens had little trouble in the bottom of the ninth giving up a lone single to Frederich Cepeda who went 4 for 4. In all, Cuba left 10 runners on base and its near perfect pitching during the first eight games of the tournament was rocked for 14 hits.

CANADA TO GET ANOTHER CHANCE FOR BEIJING

After defeating Nicaragua 3-1 Tuesday to finish fourth in the tournament, Canada and Mexico (third) will get one more shot at Beijing at a qualifier in Taipei to be held in March 2008. The Canadians won a tough pitching duel between Chirs Begg and lefthander Oswaldo Mairena, who struck out nine in seven innings.

Michael Saunders knocked in Canada’s first run with a double and its last with a single. Begg stuck out five and walked one in 6.1 innings. The loss was costly for the Nicaraguans who also lost a chance to attend the next World Cup.
In other final day action, Mexico beat Panama 10-7 backed by five home runs and Venezuela defeated the Dominican Republic 8-2

The final standings after round two put the US first at 6-1 followed by Cuba 6-1, Mexico 5-2, Canada 4-3, Venezuela 3-4, Panama and Nicaragua 2-5, and the Dominican Republic 0-7. The second round standings does not include the two games played against the teams eliminated in the first round.