Granma, Villa Clara Lead Cuba Playoffs
HAVANA TIMES, March 29 — Granma won a 15-12 slugfest over Guantanamo and Villa Clara out pitched Ciego de Avila 4-1 to take a 2-1 lead in their respective best-of-seven Cuba Eastern Division playoffs.
On Monday, Granma blasted six homers against the Guantanamo pitching including two each coming from Alfredo Despaigne and Carlos Barrabi, who together drove in nine runs. Guantanamo was no push over and at one time was up 10-9, but the relief pitching couldn’t hold the Granma bats.
In Villa Clara, last year’s league runners-up, got eight strong innings from winning pitcher Misael Siverio who allowed only one run on five hits. The loser for Ciego de Avila was Vladimir Garcia, who gave up all four VC runs in the third inning before getting the hook.
On Tuesday all eight playoff teams will see action. Besides the Villa Clara-Ciego de Avila and Guantanamo-Granma match ups, Cienfuegos (1-1) plays at the Habana (1-1) team stadium at San Jose de las Lajas and Pinar del Rio (1-1) travels to Sancti Spiritus (1-1) in the other Western Division game.