Matanzas falls short again.

Since the arrival of Victor Mesa to the Matanzas bench in 2011, the team has become one of the three best in terms of regularity to date, always present in the playoffs and with a high percentage of players called up to the Cuba team. However, they have a debt with the fans of Matanzas, they have only won one championship and that was in Series 59 when Armando Ferrer started his work as manager of the Crocodiles.

On the afternoon of this Saturday, the 29th of July, the curse of Matanzas returned in the post-season after losing 5-4 to Las Tunas in the sixth game of the play-off that ended 4-2 in favor of the winners.

It is valid to recognize that Ferrer’s pupils faced the best team of the closing of the season, the quarterfinals and the semifinals, in addition to the fact that the last 19 home games, they have only lost one, so the «Julio Antonio Mella» became a real headquarters for the Leñadores.

Today’s game was enough for Las Tunas to qualify for the semifinals, the keys to victory were once again excellent pitching and timely batting.

Angel Sanchez, did not dominate as in past occasions, allowing the four runs scored by the Crocodiles, including two complete game hits by catcher Andrys Perez and left fielder Yurisbel Gracial, but the relief of Keniel Ferraz from the third inning stopped the Matanzas offense until the eighth inning when manager Abeysis Pantoja did not shake his hand to bring in Pedro Pablo Civil, the closer who held the game with the same score until the end.

Dennys Quesada, Matanzas’ starter, did not make it past the first chapter allowing three clean runs, he was relieved by Haykel Parra, who allowed two more runs and stayed in the box until the bottom of the fourth inning, then Ferrer put on the mound an uncontrolled Naykel Cruz until the seventh, followed by Armando Dueñas, the latter managed to keep Las Tunas from scoring more runs, but they were not accompanied by the offense.

Thus ends another season where Matanzas goes far but leaves that bitter taste of uncertainty thinking that it could have been more. Now Las Tunas awaits the winner of the Play Off between Industriales and Santiago de Cuba.

Congratulations to the Leñadores who reach a national series final for the third time in their history, besides doing it with a debutant manager, Abeysis Pantoja.

Written by Alejandro López Quintero.