Agricultores scores the winning run and is crowned champion
Bayamo, January 23 (PL) - Agricultores closed as it began the I Elite League of Cuban Baseball, with a winning pace, and was crowned champion by winning 7-6 in the seventh game against a battle-hardened Portuarios.
The Portuarios blues tied spectacularly when they were two outs away from losing, but in the end the home team left them on the field in the bottom of the ninth inning, by combining a ticket to Dailier Peña, a sacrifice by Yuniesky Larduet and a "rocket" to center field by Osvaldo Abreu.
The final had a name of its own and it was that of reliever Joel Mojena, who won twice, worked in four of the seven challenges, and in the last one completed six innings and one third with 116 pitches, with which he gave up seven hits for three runs allowed, with one strikeout.
Left-hander Leandro Martínez was the starter for the hosts at the Mártires de Barbados stadium in this city, but left the box in the third in spite of having a 2×1 lead, to give way to Mojena.
At the last minute, the manager of the visitors, Michael González, declined to open with Raymond Figueredo and opted for Pavel Hernández, but the capitalist failed for the third consecutive time and left after only two chapters and three runs allowed.
The ninth, which combines Industriales and Mayabeque players, managed to tie the score in the fifth, but at the end of that chapter, the easterners scored three with singles in line by Yosvany and Yordanis Alarcón, and Rafael Viñales, and nothing moved until the ninth.
The mentor of the locals, Carlos Martí, maintained his winning aura in the finals, adding his fifth, and also becoming the first to come back from a 1-3 deficit in this instance.
It was a pitched battle that set a record of runs scored by both teams for a postseason in the history of Cuban baseball (114), surpassing the 109 previously scored in the quarterfinals.
Agricultores also guaranteed its ticket to the Gran Caracas 2023 Caribbean Baseball Series, joining WildCats KJ74 (Curacao), Federales de Chiriqui (Panama) and Tigres del Licey (Dominican Republic). The champions of the Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, Mexican and Colombian leagues have yet to be determined.
