Cuban Team Wins Despite Absent Pitcher

The Cuban baseball team at the World University Games at Buffalo, N.Y., showed no ill effects Sunday from the unexplained absence of one of its members, beating Canada, 4-1.

Pitcher Edilberto Oropesa jumped over a fence at Sal Maglie Stadium in Niagara Falls on Saturday and ran to a waiting car, which sped off with him.

Immigration and Naturalization officials said Sunday they have not heard from Oropesa or anyone claiming to be connected with him about seeking asylum.

His teammates won for the third time in as many games on a two-hitter by Ormary Turcaz.

The U.S. baseball team also remained unbeaten with a 3-0 victory over Taiwan as Paul Wilson of Florida State pitched a five-hitter with eight strikeouts.

There was a report Sunday of a member of the Cuban fencing delegation being missing. The Sports Network, a Canadian cable television all-sports channel, said a Cuban fencer had left the team but gave no other details.

Officials refused to comment on the report.

In other events in the World University Games, Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus, the first gymnast to win six gold medals in one Olympics when he stole the show at Barcelona last summer, won the men’s all-around, waiting for his final event to beat Yuri Chechi of Italy.

Scherbo managed a 9.7 on the vault and Chechi could only come up with a 9.3 on the pommel horse to give him the gold medal, 56.425-56.405.

The United States won two gold medals in swimming--Ian Mull of Auburn in the men’s 400 individual medley and the 800 freestyle relay team. U.S. swimmers have won all three relays contested so far.

The United States beat Slovakia, 5-4, in water polo as Marc Hunt of UC Irvine scored his second goal of the game with 1:53 to play to break the tie.

The U.S. women’s volleyball team swept France, 15-10, 15-3, 15-8, and the men lost to South Korea, 15-8, 6-15, 15-10, 10-15, 15-10.

In the tennis competition, Heather Willens of Stanford advanced to the women’s quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Patrena Markova of Slovakia.

On the men’s side, Michael Sell of Georgia lost his third-round match to Kotare Miyachi of Japan, 6-4, 6-4.

The U.S. men’s soccer team came up with its first victory, beating Ireland, 3-2, to even its record at 1-1-1.

Through Sunday, the United States led in medals with 17, eight gold. Japan had 12 medals, one gold.

Soccer

Luis Roberto Alvas scored a Mexican-record seven goals to lead his nation over Martinique, 9-0, in its opening game at the CONCACAF Gold Cup at Mexico City.

In the first game of the doubleheader, Canada and Costa Rica played a 1-1 tie. The biennial tournament is for the championship of soccer’s North and Central American and Caribbean region.

Alvas opened the scoring in the 10th minute off a pass from Ramon Ramirez. He added goals in the 21st, 38th, 52nd, 75th, 80th and 82nd minutes.

Mexico has qualified for the 1994 World Cup. About 40,000 fans were at the game in 120,000-seat Azteca Stadium.

It was the second-largest victory since the Mexicans began playing international soccer in 1928. Mexico’s largest victory was 11-0 over St. Vincent last Dec. 6. Before that, the Mexicans’ record for goals in a game was eight on seven occasions.

Canada settled for the tie against Costa Rica after losing a 1-0 lead and missing a penalty shot in the first game of Group B play.

Canada went ahead in the 42nd minute on a goal by Nick Dasovic, and appeared poised to win after leading through most of the second half.

But Roy Meyers scored for Costa Rica in the 82nd minute, bringing the Central American team even in the match.

Playing its second match in 24 hours, the L.A. Salsa (8-3) beat the Colorado Foxes, 2-0, in Colorado to move to third place in the American Professional Soccer League, behind Vancouver and Colorado and one point ahead of Montreal.

The Salsa had outlasted the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, 1-0, in a three-hour soccer match decided by the shoot-out system Saturday night at Cal State Fullerton.

Boxing

Thailand’s Phichit Sitbangprachan stopped South Korean Lee Kyung-yun in the first round to retain his International Boxing Federation flyweight title at Bangkok, Thailand.

Miscellany

The top-seeded team of Karolyn Kirby and Liz Masakayan overcame an 8-3 deficit in the final to claim their ninth victory in 10 beach volleyball events at the $20,000 Coors Light Ohio Open in Fairborn, Ohio. Kirby and Masakayan beat Gail Castro and Elaine Roque, 15-10.

The Newport Beach Dukes beat the Strings, 28-20, to improve to 3-0 before an estimated crowd of 2,400, the majority of whom cheered Bjorn Borg’s every success and groaned at his failures. The Dukes’ Rikard Bergh beat Borg, 6-5, in the match’s most important set.