The Aguilas Cibaenas, behind the Jose Lima “mambo show” took the lead in the best of seven final series last night, defeating the Tigres of Licey 6-2 at the Cibao Baseball Stadium. Lima, a star with the LA Dodgers last year, brings a lot of emotion to the ballpark, and after the previous night’s defeat, he had promised the fans a victory. He pitched 6 2/3 of excellent baseball, limiting the powerful Licey team to just one run, a huge home run by Jose Offerman in the first inning and a total of three hits. Former MVP of the American League, Miguel Tejada tied up the score in the fourth inning with a home run of his own.
Between the second inning and the seventh inning Lima retired 14 Licey batsmen in a row.
The Aguilas took a lead in the sixth inning off of a base on balls to Luis Polonia – soon to be with the Washington Nationals – and a powerful smash to the right field wall by Matt Cepicky. Aguilas, 2-1. In the “lucky” seventh inning the Aguilas put the game on ice with three more runs, thanks to two bases on balls and a triple by Bernie Castro, who scored on a bad throw by the Licey shortstop Erick Aybar..
The series now stands at 2-1 in favor of the Aguilas who play in Santo Domingo tonight at 7:00.