2021-2022 Cuban National League

The 2021-2022 Cuban National League witnessed an exciting Cuban Serie Nacional, with many teams packed closely together in the regular season. In the finals, third-place Granma and sixth-place Matanzas squared off after some upsets in the playoffs.

In Game one of the finals, June 17, 2022, Granma won a 13-6 slugfest, Iván Prieto driving in three. The Yamichel Pérez and Noel Entenza shut down Granma in Game 2, a 4-1 victory, with three hits from former major leaguer Erisbel Arruebaruena. On June 21, the tourney went to Matanzas, but they dropped the game to the visitors, Joel Mojena defeating Dariel Gongora thanks to a well-balanced attack, 10-3. Three days later, Matanzas rallied for a 4-2 lead, with Naykel Cruz and Entenza throwing 6 1/3 shutout innings of relief to tie the Series.

Matanzas won Game 5, Arruebaruena going deep in a 5-3 win and Entenza saving it for Pérez. With the finals going back to Granma, they evened it with a 3-1 win on June 28, Mojena and Yunier Castillo pitching well. That forced a final game on June 29. Granma successfully repeated as champs when Leandro Martínez and César García teamed up on a six-hit whitewash (half the hits coming from Arruebaruena), while Guillermo Avilés reached every time up and went deep in the 4-0 victory.

In individual performances, 42-year-old Frederich Cepeda not only led in walks (over one a game) as usual but also topped .400 for a .406/.574/.577 line, a better OBP than Ted Williams had ever put up. Meanwhile, Marlon Vega won two-thirds of a pitching Triple Crown (wins and ERA; he was only 7 shy in strikeouts) despite not making a single start.

Standings

Regular Season Standings

Team	Record	GB	Manager
Sancti Spíritus	45-30	--	Eriel Sánchez
Las Tunas	43-32	2	Pablo Alberto Civil
Granma	43-32	2	Carlos Martí
Mayabeque	42-33	3	Michael González
Ciego de Ávila	41-34	4	Yorelvis Charles
Industriales	41-34	4	Guillermo Carmona
Matanzas	40-35	5	Armando Ferrer
Pinar del Rio	40-35	5	Alexander Urquiola
Holguín	39-36	6	Héctor Hernández
Villa Clara	38-37	7	Pedro Jova
Santiago de Cuba	38-37	7	Eriberto Rosales
Isla de la Juventud	37-38	8	Armando Johnson
Camagüey	36-39	9	Miguel Borroto
Artemisa	27-46	17	Lazaro Castro
Guantánamo	27-48	18	Agustín Lescaille
Cienfuegos	21-52	23	Alaín Álvarez

Playoffs: Sancti Spíritus def. Pinar del Río, 4 games to 3. Matanzas def. Las Tunas, 4 games to 1. Granma def. Industriales, 4 games to 1. Ciego de Ávila def. Mayabeque, 4 games to 2. Granma def. Ciego de Ávila, 4 games to 0. Matanzas def. Sancti Spíritus, 4 games to 0. Granma def. Matanzas, 4 games to 3.

Leaders

Bold indicates either wooden bat record or aluminum bat record (1976-1977 to 1998-1999), Italics indicate Serie Nacional record

Batting

Stat	Leader	Team	Number	Notes
Batting Average	Frederich Cepeda	Sancti Spíritus	.406
Runs Scored	Yoelkis Guibert	Santiago de Cuba	72
Base Hits	Alexander Ayala	Camagüey	107
Doubles	Yordanis Samón	Camagüey	29
Triples	Jorge Álvarez	Camagüey	8
Home Runs	Pedro Revilla	Guantánamo	26
Runs Batted In	Yoelkis Guibert	Santiago de Cuba	78
Base-on-Balls	Frederich Cepeda	Sancti Spíritus	93
Intentional Base-on-Balls	Frederich Cepeda	Sancti Spíritus	34
Hit-by-Pitch	Rodolexis Moreno	Sancti Spíritus	19
Strikeouts	Over Cremet	Guantánamo	64
Sacrifice Hit	Andrys Pérez	Matanzas	17
Sacrifice Fly	Yasniel González Raúl González	Ciego de Ávila Ciego de Ávila	8
Stolen Bases	Eliseo Rojas	Isla de la Juventud	26

Pitching

Stat	Leader	Team	Number	Notes
Wins	Marlon Vega	Mayabeque	12
Win-Loss Percentage	Alejandro Meneses	Las Tunas	.900	9-1
Earned Run Average	Marlon Vega	Mayabeque	2.75	88 1/3 IP
Innings Pitched	Alberto Bicet	Santiago de Cuba	114 1/3 IP
Games Pitched	Marlon Vega	Mayabeque	37
Games Started	Jonathan Carbó	Isla de la Juventud	19
Games Relieved	Marlon Vega	Mayabeque	37
Complete Games	Yadian Martínez Dachel Duquesne Alberto Bicet	Mayabeque Ciego de Ávila Santiago de Cuba	4
Shutouts	Alberto Bicet José Rodríguez Erly Casanova	Santiago de Cuba Camagüey Pinar del Rio	2
Hits Allowed	Yudier Rodríguez	Las Tunas	142
Strikeouts	Geonel Gutiérrez	Artemisa	77
Base-on-Balls	Alexander Valiente	Guantánamo	68
Intentional Base-on-Balls	Manuel Murgado	Artemisa	16
Hit Batters	Alexander Valiente	Guantánamo	24
Saves	Franky Quintana	Isla de la Juventud	14

All-Star Game

The All-Star Game took place at Estadio Victoria de Girón in Matanzas, Matanzas. The Occidentales won a slugfest, 12-11. The Occidentales' Dayán García hit the second grand slam in Cuban All-Star annals while Frederich Cepeda was 3-for-3 with a walk for the losing Orientales; Cepeda was tying a record with his 11th All-Star appearance. The win went to Kendry Hernández and the loss to Carlos Juan Viera.