In times when shortstop is the position with the greatest uncertainties in Las Tunas baseball, the talented Carlos Rodríguez has come to bring some hope regarding the future of this infield position here.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- The boy from the provincial capital, already included in the list of players from Las Tunas who will seek a place in the 61st National Series, remains among the 25 athletes of the youth national preselection. After several weeks of preparation at the José Antonio Huelga Stadium, the player from Las Tunas has convinced the technicians of his worth to defend the shortstop, a strategic position in the baseball game, not by choice called the key to the infield.
The tall player stands out for his defense and for batting on both sides of the home plate, characteristics that could lead him to distinguish once again the work of baseball from Las Tunas in that position. If in recent seasons athletes from other provinces have been in charge of the short stops of the Lumberjacks (Magdiel Gómez, Alexánder Ayala, Yordan Manduely, Andrés de la Cruz), the years in which Las Tunas came to have a stellar figure of the stature of Alexánder Guerrero and prospects such as Roberto Súllivan Baldoquín, Leonardo Laffita, Liosmany Falcón, or Ariel Álvarez are not so far.
Now, it seems that the line of good work could be retaken. In fact, the colleague from Sancti Spíritus, Randy Vasconcelos, who has been able to see him in action within the Cuban preselection, did not hesitate to describe him as "brilliant, a very good at defense," while revealing the evaluation of Rolando Basulto, national methodologist of the category, who considers him "the best youth shortstop in recent years."
The U-18 preselection had planned to carry out a series of four preparation matches before the team that will attend the Caribbean Cup under the command of Pablo Alberto Civil, from Las Tunas; although that planning could change, because there was much talk in the last hours about the definitive suspension of the Pan-American tournament, which would host shortly the Mexican city of Veracruz.
If the information advanced to 26 by Randy Vasconcelos is confirmed, at the end of July those 25 players, together with five other position players and three pitchers, would return to Sancti Spíritus to define the list of 20 that will attend the U-18 World Cup, announced for September in Florida, the United States.
America’s teams, as happened with those from Asia, would accede to that competition according to the ranking of the continent, in which Cuba occupies the third position.
