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Creoles champions! Caguas achieves the ‘back to back’ by eliminating the Indios in the fifth game of the final

Mayaguez. The 20th championship of the ‘Yegüita’ in Puerto Rican winter baseball arrived.

Johneshwy Fargas hit the golden ball in the eighth inning to break a tie on the board and thus guide the Criollos de Caguas to their second title in a row, after dramatically beating the Indios de Mayagüez 4-3 on Thursday in the fifth game of the final series of the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League at the Isidoro García Stadium.

The Criollos, who dominated the series 4-1, will be the representatives of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Series that will begin next week in the Dominican Republic.

Caguas also outclassed the Indios in last season’s final, sweeping them in four games.

It was another disappointing end to the season for the Indians as they posted their fourth straight runner-up finish and sixth in the past eight years. They haven’t won a title since 2013-14.

Caguas, for its part, is the first franchise in the league to reach 20 titles. The Criollos impressed in the series by winning three of their four away games. The few Criollos fans celebrated the championship in the stands.

The Indians threatened to even the score in the last inning when Danny Ortiz doubled with two outs, but TJ Rivera grounded out to third base to make way for the celebration of the Creole players on the field. Ricardo Gómez saved his third game of the series.

Fargas was the hero of the night with two outs in the eighth inning off pitches from Indians star reliever Fernando Cruz.

After eliminating the first two batters, Cruz allowed a weak single to right-hander Jancarlos Cintrón and then reached the ninth batter, Roby Enríquez.

And with runners at second base and first base, Fargas hit a strong line drive down the left line to drive in Cintrón with the lead run. On the play, Enriquez was thrown out at the plate to close out the inning.

Contrary to the night before, the Indians jumped to the front on the scoreboard by driving in two runs in the opening inning off pitches from right-hander Yordy Cabrera.

With Brett Rodriguez at first base, Chavez Young doubled to left to drive him home. Young then advanced to third on Emmanuel Rivera’s infield groundout and scored on Danny Ortiz’s sacrifice fly to get the crowd excited.

Caguas’ reaction was not long in coming. In the third act against left-hander Eric Stout, the visitors scored three runs to take the lead.

With the bases loaded, Jonathan Morales doubled the middle, driving in two runs to even the score. And immediately afterwards, David Vidal singled to left to bring Engel Beltré to the plate and thus give the visitors a 3-2 lead.

Stout, who was the Pitcher of the Year in the regular phase, only completed 1.2 innings allowing four hits and three runs.

After the first inning, Cabrera tightened his arm and threw three straight scoreless innings until they tied the game in the fifth with two outs. With Jim Haley at second, ninth-hitter Jeremy Rivera hit a single to right to drive in the American.

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