Baseball: Saurios bounce back with home run by the emerging Ronney Muñiz

Havana, June 25 (RHC)-- The mentor of the Crocodiles, Armando Ferrer, took Ronney Muñiz off the bench as a starter, and the young slugger hit a home run with a runner on base to finally be a key figure in the 4-2 victory of his team against the monarch exponent Granma, in the final play off of the LXI National Baseball Series.

With this result, the Saurians have a 3-2 favorable score, waiting for the sixth game to be played next Monday at the Mártires de Barbados stadium, in Bayamo.

The Alazanes had taken a 2-0 lead in the second inning, in which they ejected starter Renner Rivero from the box with two biangulares accompanied by a pair of tickets, one of them intentional.

But in the bottom of the fourth, and without hitting a jit, they scored once when the fast Yadil Mujica received a ticket from starter Leandro Martinez, reached second on a groundout to Erisbel Arruebarrena and another intentional to Javier Camero, after a pitch outside the plate.

And in that situation of the game, Mujica was cutting distance from the third pad, and stole home, something unprecedented in the history of Cuban baseball postseasons.

In the seventh act, came the decisive home run by Muñiz, who came on as a pinch hitter for left-hander Yariel Duque. Then, Carlos Martí, mentor of the Alazanes, brought in right-hander Kelbis Rodríguez as a reliever, to whom the sturdy matancero hit a home run to the first delivery through the center of the plate.

And in the eighth inning, with a 3-2 lead and no outs, Ferrer asked first reliever Naykel Cruz for the ball, who threw 4.1 innings to the tune of three hits and with power on his fastball, gave it once again to right-hander Noelvys Entenza, who worked two innings immaculately.

"I have been able to train better in the last few days, as I did not do well in the qualifying phase because I had a lot of personal problems. I think I am fine and ready to serve as a reliever or starter, to support my team as much as possible," said Entenza at the end of the game.

For the sixth game, in Bayamo, the Saurian helmsman is almost decided to use left-hander Dariel Góngora as starter; while Martí is studying the possibility of giving the teammate to right-hander Joel Mojena.