US Takes Baseball Opener Over Cuba

HAVANA TIMES — The US national college team beat Cuba’s best 4-3 on Thursday night in the first game of the five game series being played at Havana’s Latin American Stadium.

The loss went to Cuban righty Yadier Pedroso, while the best hitter of the crash was the designated hitter Michael Conforto, with his 6th inning grand slam off reliever Norberto Gonzalez, accounting for all of the US runs.

Cuba came back with two runs in the seventh on a homer by Frederich Cepeda and another in the eighth but fell one run short.

In the pitchers duel both teams were limited to five hits.  The winning pitcher was Jonathan Crawford who went 6.1 innings.

According to analysis of The Prensa Latina news agency, the Cuban batters are used to facing lower average speed pitching at 85 miles per hour, have to make adjustments on offense, as most US pitchers hurlers exceed 90 mph.

The second of the five games is tonight at 8 pm, at the same stage.