Weather making an impact on Cuba Summer Series

For the second consecutive day, heavy rain has caused a delay in the Cuba Summer Series.

Yesterday’s game resumed earlier today and was completed to the tune of an 11-1 Cuba victory.

In what looked like to be a close game before rain halted play in the top of the fifth yesterday afternoon, turned into a blowout as Cuba belted out 18 hits to beat the Junior National Team 11-1 as played resumed in the Cuba Summer Series.

The second scheduled game today was stopped in the bottom of the fourth inning with the Junior National Team leading 5-0 thanks in large part to a Mitch Bigras (Sarnia, ON) three-run homer in the fourth.

The game will resume tomorrow at 2pm and will be a nine-inning contest, while a seven inning game is scheduled to follow.

Cuba 11 Canada 1 (Resumed from 07/06)

Pitcher Matt Ianni (Ottawa, ON) took over for Colton Wood (Victoria, BC) who had worked four and one-third innings yesterday and walked the first batter he faced before getting a fly-out to centre and a fly-out to left to leave both runners stranded.

Cuba jumped ahead 5-1 in the top of the sixth after Ianni walked the leadoff better before giving up a two-run homer that landed in the bleachers beyond the left field fence. A pair of singles and an error by left fielder JF Garon (Terrebonne, QC) gave Cuba runners on the corners and after a wild pitch, Cuba had a four run lead.

Things didn’t get any better in the seventh as Ianni allowed a leadoff double before being removed from the game in favour of newcomer RJ Freure (Burlington, ON). Freure got off to a rough start giving up a leadoff triple before a two-run homer put Cuba up 8-1. On the play, left fielder JF Garon made a valiant effort trying to catch the ball getting a glove on it only to see the ball deflect off his glove and land over the fence.

Cuba kept coming in the eight adding a run before tacking on two more in the ninth to go up 11-1.

In total, the Cubans belted out 18 hits, while the juniors responded with eight including a 3-for-5 day from Demi Orimoloye.

The juniors did have chances to scored leaving the bases loaded on a three separate occasions yesterday before leaving five runners on today for a total of 16 in the game.

Canada 5 Cuba 0 (Suspended 4th inning)

The juniors opened the scoring in the top of the first after Charles Leblanc (Laval, QC) dropped an opposite field single into right field and scored all the way from first base on a Josh Naylor (Mississauga, ON) double to the gap in right-centre.

Naylor worked the count full and then unloaded on a belt-high fastball drilling the pitch all the way to the wall in right-centre.

Starter Nolan Bumstead (Calgary, AB) cruised through two perfect innings before getting into a jam in the third loading the bases with one out on three walks. He was able to get out of it with a double play ball to third baseman Mitchell Robinson (Surrey, BC) who flipped to LP Pelletier (Montréal, QC) at second who fired to first where Robert Byckowski (Georgetown, ON) made a nice play to keep his foot on the bag while extending his body to make the catch.

Byckowski was right back in the thick of things as he led-off the top of the fourth with a double to right. He then took his lead off second and was promptly tagged by the second baseman and called out as the Cubans attempted the hidden ball trick. Only problem was the Cuban pitcher was standing on the rubber without the ball leaving the call to be reversed and Byckowski being awarded third base on a balk. The Cubans argued to no avail and Mitch Robinson followed with a single to centre scoring Byckowski to put the juniors up by two.

After Matt Lloyd (Okotoks, AB) singled to right to put runners on the corners, Mitch Bigras (Sarnia, ON) stepped to the plate with dark clouds looming overhead and took ball one. With the dark clouds making it almost impossible to play, the umpires delayed the game for a while in hopes that the lights would pop on, but decided to play on. Bigras didn’t let the poor lighting bother him as he ripped a 1-0 offering over the fence in right field for a three-run homer.

Play was suspended in the bottom of the fourth with Cubas batting, Bumstead still on the mound with nobody out and a runner on first base with a two and one count on the batter.

Up Next: The series will continue tomorrow with the conclusion of today’s game at 2pm at Victoria de Giron Stadium in Matanzas…RHP Mike Soroka (Calgary, AB) is slated to start the suspended game, while JP Stevenson (Hunter River, PE) gets the nod in game two…Live game tweets from all Cuba Summer Series games will be available via Baseball Canada’s Twitter account, @baseballcanada. Daily game stories will be posted after each game on Baseball Canada’s official website, baseball.ca.

Cuba Summer Series schedule:

0704 Canada 4 Cuba 11
0705 Cuba 5 Canada 2
0705 Canada 0 Cuba 6
0706 Cuba 11 Canada 1
0707 Canada 5 Cuba 0 (Suspended 4th inning)
0708 2pm/5pm
0709 4pm
0710 9am

*All times eastern