Cuba-USA Today in Haarlem Semifinal
HAVANA TIMES — After losing its two opening games to Puerto Rico and the USA, team Cuba rallied for three wins including Friday’s 4-0 over Holland to set the stage for a semifinal contest against its chief rival the United States on Saturday in the Haarlem Baseball Week tournament.
The game begins at 8:00 a.m. Cuban time (EDT) and Freddy Asiel Alvarez is set to start against Jonathan Crawford for the USA.
In the other semifinal match up, Puerto Rico, which went undefeated in the preliminary round plays host Holland later on Saturday.
On Friday, right-hander Vladimir Garcia pitched a strong eight innings of shutout baseball to get the win. Odrisamer Despaigne and Pablo Millan Fernandez got the final three outs in the ninth.
Shortstop Barbaro Arruebarruena had three hits and scored twice plus one RBI and catcher Frank Morejón had two hits and scored one run to help lead Cuba. Third baseman Yulieski Gourriel drove in two of Cuba’s runs on two singles.