Cuba Defeats Dominican Republic and Remains Undefeated in Central American Baseball

The Cuban baseball team defeated its counterpart from the Dominican Republic in its third presentation of the Santo Domingo 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games with a score of nine runs to six, concluding the qualifying phase as group leaders.

The Cubans took control of the action in the first inning with a three-run rally, taking advantage of defensive carelessness by the Dominican Republic and timely hitting from their batters.

In the inning, the Dominican defense committed two errors that allowed the second Cuban hitter, Luis Vicente Mateo, and then the third hitter, Yoel Yanqui, to reach base.

Leonel Moas drove in the first run for Cuba with a weakly hit but well-placed hit; the other two runs in the inning were driven in by a hit from Henry Quintero.

Cuba added another run in the top of the fourth inning, thanks to an RBI hit to center field by the third hitter Yoel Yanqui that brought Andrys Pérez home from third.

The Cuban management’s designation to start the game was Randy Cueto, who worked for three and two-thirds innings, allowing two runs, giving up three hits, walking one, and striking out three batters.

In his place came right-handed pitcher Andy Vargas from Havana, who could not record an out, walking a batter and giving up a triple to Ricardo Céspedes that drove in the first three runs for the Dominican Republic.

Artemisa native Yunieski García entered with the task of containing the rival’s bats but was greeted with a hit by Julio Rodríguez to left field that tied the game for the home team and unleashed the joy of the crowd at the Juan Marichal Stadium in Quisqueya.

After the Dominican runs, calm returned, and both teams’ staff managed to get through the following innings without much difficulty.

The 4-4 tie remained on the scoreboard at the end of the regulation seven innings, forcing a tiebreaker rule to decide the winner.

At the top of the eighth inning with the tiebreaker rule in effect, the players from the largest Caribbean archipelago managed to produce a five-run rally to take a 9-4 lead in the challenge.

In the bottom of the same inning, the home team responded with two runs driven in by a single from Ricardo Céspedes, who was their best hitter with five RBIs and also a triple as an extra-base hit.

The victory as pitcher went to Cuban closer Armando Dueñas, who worked two innings in which he allowed only two earned runs and retired two batters via strikeout to support the Cuban victory.

With the win, the Cuban team secured first place in the group, finishing the qualifying round undefeated at 3-0.

This Tuesday, the players from the largest Caribbean archipelago will return to the Juan Marichal field in the Dominican capital to begin their journey in the super round in search of a ticket to the grand final of the tournament.