DRAMATIC: Mayabeque CLASSIFIED to the Series 61 playoffs after submitting La Isla

By Robiel Vega/@robielcuba87

The recovery days continued this Monday, May 16, and a new team officially qualified for the postseason of the 61st National Series. Nobody doubted that the Hurricanes could not be in the big party, but it was not until they reached their 41st victory they did not achieve their goal.

The Pirates of the Island did not make things easy and from the very first inning, in which they produced a five-run cluster, thanks to a single by Aquimo Jiménez, a double by Leonardo Urgellés, another uncatchable by Dainier Gálvez; all this against starter Michael Ortiz, and ninth batter rocket Laidel Águila, who brought two, but this time against reliever José Ignacio Bermúdez.

The reaction of the Hurricanes was immediate: Yasniel González in the first, Dennis Laza twice in the second, Yasniel again in that inning and Rafael Fonseca, were present on the scoreboard to equalize the actions.

With the departure of starter Jonathan Carbó and the entry of Yunier Gamboa opening the third inning, the Mayabeque team took command thanks to an uncatchable Rangel Ramos and a two-run triple by Alexander Pozo, who made the reliever jump out of the box. The cluster was completed with a sacrifice fly by Dennis Laza against new pitcher Yordanis García.

Everything seemed under control, but the Pirates were not about to give up and the score was level again in the fourth, due to an RBI double by José Luis Brings and a homer by Yasmani Viera with two on board, his second of the season.

In that inning itself, before the new reliever, Yulian Quintana, the Pinera troop took command again through Luis Ángel Rojas’ tubey until two innings later, thanks to a rolling by the box by Juan Carlos Hernández, the board had parity again .

In the lucky seven Yasniel González would produce again, this time with a sacrifice fly and with another one in the bottom of the eighth and with Adrián Sosa on the mound, it seemed that there would be no more complications; but Laidel Águila would put more pressure on him at the end with another trailer in the ninth, until finally the 27th out fell with a score of 12×11 in favor of the home team, who thus obtained their ticket to the postseason.

A total of 33 hits were connected in the match, which ended up being won by “El Brujo” Sosa (3-3), while the defeat fell on the shoulders of Kendry Hernández (4-9). As a curious fact, Eliseo Rojas stole his 23rd base of the season and got two behind the leader Yuniesky Larduet, with one game left for his team.

After this result, Mayabeque (41-32) claimed to be in fourth or fifth place, depending on what Industriales can do and only has two rival possibilities for the Quarterfinals, the Blues themselves or the Ciego de Ávila Tigers. La Isla (36-38), will no longer rise from its twelfth place.

The particular stop between Villa Clara and Artemisa, which should be developed on this day itself, is still pending rescheduling, waiting for the weather situation to improve and to condition the land of the Augusto César Sandino stadium in Santa Clara, still under water. As reported by colleague Dayron Perez Urbano, from the CMHW radio station on his Facebook account.