The 61st National Baseball Series began with the confrontation between the champions of Granma and the sub-monarchs from Matanzas, two teams that have already shown their credentials to be considered strong candidates for the title in the young contest.
This time the winners were the “Crocodiles”, who came with all their might to the Martyrs of Barbados Stadium in search of a smile, which can represent a lot emotionally. Especially since the people of Granma have become the black “beast” of Matanzas in recent postseasons.
Armando Ferrer’s students will now receive the “Elefantes” from Cienfuegos, a team with significant absences compared to the previous Series, but they are still dangerous, especially offensively.
Men like Luis Mateo, Pavel Quesada, Richel López, Yusniel Ibañez and Juan Soriano, can be a headache for Ferrer’s pitching, hence there is no kind of confidence. “We are going to go out on the field to win every game, for me all teams are the same. We won a great match against Granma and that’s how we’re going to play against the rest of the teams”.
Despite winning, which in the end is the most important thing, the Yumurinos were imprecise in running the bases and they weren’t exact on defense either. He also lacked opportunity at bat, even the two home runs were with clean bases.
“We were surprised by a man on first base with the bases loaded and two out, Camejo was also confused and they double-played us. They are inaccuracies that we are going to iron out along the way”.
Ferrer highlighted the quality of Yasiel Santoya, who was the starter for the “Crocodiles” in the last decade and who will now play with Industriales. “Santoya is a great player, no one can deny that he is a sensible loss, but I think those who are there can do the job.”
Much controversy has been generated on social networks, especially from Matanzas followers, due to the yellow color that stands out on his visitor’s shirt. “I don’t see it as ugly, I like the design and the combination of yellow, red and black stand out a lot. Let me tell you that with this color we won two championships with Henequeneros and I was part of that team”.
For his part, the manager of the “Elefantes”, Alain Álvarez, knows that matching the performance of the previous campaign is very complicated, but it is not impossible.
“We made an excellent preparation, especially with a lot of support from the authorities of the territory. In the last few days we focused on looking for a lineup that is capable of building runs and hopefully the pitching can help us a little bit.
