The Mexican baseball team was crowned this Sunday at the Central American and Caribbean Games held in San Salvador, El Salvador, with the particularity that they won the gold medal without playing the final against their counterpart from Cuba.
Some heavy rains prevented the final match from being held, so the rules gave Mexico the winner.
According to the rules of the competition, the North Americans were declared the winners of the discipline because they had the best record of victories in the tournament.
The ninth Mexican team closed its participation in the Salvadoran capital with five wins and one setback against the 4-2 accumulated by Cuba. However, Mexico finished the tournament without having played against Curaçao, a meeting that was to be held on Monday but was also canceled due to rain.
Cuba had achieved its pass to the final this Saturday morning after concluding the pending game it had against Venezuela, postponed since Monday due to rain.
Hours before, the semifinal between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic was played, in which the South Americans kept the bronze after winning in extra innings by 11-4.
The decision to award gold to Mexico was announced to the public after a 30-minute meeting between the commissioner of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WSBC) and representatives of the two delegations.
This summit was held one hour and 20 minutes after the scheduled start time of the meeting. At that time, many fans waited confused outside the venue in the heavy rain.
When the decision was announced, the Cuban side in the stands of the Saturnino Bengoa National Ball Park protested while the Mexican side celebrated.
Thanks to the determination of the organizers of the Games, Mexico achieved its first gold medal for baseball in the Central American and Caribbean Games.
The ball tournament, as in other disciplines in the regional fair, has been greatly affected by the rains. In baseball alone, four games had to be rescheduled and two more were cancelled.
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