Havana, Cuba - Pinar del Rio beat 3-1 the leader and current monarch Ciego de Ávila and now appears at only one from the top of Cuban baseball championship in its 55th edition.

Vladimir Baños was the winner after pitching six innings with four strikeouts and allowing just two hits, supported by the eleventh save by lefty Livan Moinelo and offensive highlight for Dennis Laza, who hit 4 for 5 with an RBI.

Now Pinar del Rio exhibits balance of 46 wins and 26 losses, to the siege of Ciego de Avila ( 48-26), which has collected three defeats in line and has only managed to win once after the restart last Saturday of the domestic baseball classic.

Matanzas beat 9-4 Granma to score its third consecutive win and now appears third in the standings, with the tenth victory of the season for Yoanni Yera and offensive highlight by catcher Ariel Martinez and outfielder Eduardo Blanco, who both homered.

Industriales accentuated its decline when achieving its fourth straight loss, this time 5-2 against Las Tunas, with Ubisney Bermudez as winner by allowing only four hits and two earned runs in eight innings- and outstanding batting performance of rookie Ruben Paz, 4 for 4 with two RBIs.

Finally , Holguin didn´t take advantage of Industriales loss in its ambitions to reach the qualifying area to postseason after losing 7-6 to the current runner-up Isla de la Juventud.

Second baseman Dainier Galvez and outfielder Andres de la Cruz, the latter with three RBIs, hit homers to lead Isla de la Juventud´s offensive, while reliever Yunier Gamboa took the win and save to the account of Danny Aguilera.

With only 11 games left, not counting pending matches, Ciego de Avila (48-26) leads the Cuban baseball championship, followed by Pinar del Río (46-26), Matanzas (44-28) , Industriales (43-32), Holguin (41-34), Las Tunas (40-35), Isla de la Juventud ( 37-36) and Granma (38-38).