Cuba opened and closed the Eneco World Port Tournament with slim victories over Chinese Taipei to win the Gold medal. The Cuban squad won all nine tournament games including a 2-0 victory in the championship game.
Yadel MARTI picked up his second win of the tourney scattering five hits and one walk over 6.1 innings against Chinese Taipei in the finals. Yulieski GONZALEZ allowed only one hit in 2.2 innings to register the save for the unbeaten Cubans (9-0).
Hector OLIVERA went 2-for-3 and scored both runs for Cuba which beat Chinese Taipei 2-1 to open the Tournament on August 2. The tournament’s leading hitter – Alfredo DESPAIGNE – had a double and an RBI in the title game. He finished the tourney hitting .448 (13-for-29).
The Most Valuable Player of the tournament, Cuba’s Yosvani PERAZA, drove in a run with a hit in the championship game. The talented catcher finished with a .419 (13-for-31) mark including three home runs, six runs scored and 18 RBI’s.
Other Cuban hitters enjoying successful tournaments were Carlos TABARES (.395), Alexia BELL (.357), and Jose Julio RUIZ – who won the Home Run King Award with four dingers.
Chinese Taipei (4-5) defeated Team USA twice to earn second place honors. Yi-Chuan LIN (11-for-36) had two homers and five RBI’s while Chih-Yao CHAN was 10-for-33 with a home run and five runs scored.
Team USA finished in third place with a 4-4 record and speedy Jordan DANKS earned the Rookie Award after hitting .419 (13-for-31) including a pair of doubles, a triple and a homer.
The Netherlands placed fourth and got two great outings from pitcher Leon BOYD who took home Best Pitcher and Press Award honors. The DOOR Neptunus ace was 2-0 with an 0.00 ERA in 15 innings. Sidney DE JONG was the top Dutch hitter going 8-for-23 (.348) with two homers.
