Liván Moinelo Pita

Liván is a baseball player for the Pinar del Río Baseball team, who made his debut in the LIIII National Baseball Series, 2013-2014 as a left-handed pitcher. He has had a good performance in his short career in this field. He participated in the 2015 Caribbean Series, with the Vegueros de Pinar del Río team, which was crowned champion of the same. He signed as a professional in 2017 with the club Fukuoka SoftBank Hawk, of the Japanese Professional Baseball League. He was hired again by this League in 2018, obtaining for the second consecutive time the title of champion of the Pacific League of Japan with the SoftBank Hawks and continues pitching for this team in 2019 and 2020.

Liván was born in San Juan y Martínez, and resides in the Popular Council of Río Feo (San Juan y Martínez) in the province of Pinar del Río.

He completed his primary education at the Rafael Sixto Casado School in his hometown. When he was in 6th grade, he was selected for the Ormani Arenado Llonch Sports Initiation School of Pinar del Río, where he completed his upper secondary education, finishing 12th grade there. He then attended the EPEF Comandante Manuel Fajardo of this province where he began his university studies.

When he was nine years old, he was already playing baseball in a Special Area. At that time he competed in Pioneer Games. Before becoming a pitcher, he played in other positions such as 1st base and outfielder. During his time at the EIDE he participated in National School Games and National Youth Games. In 12th grade, he was part of the youth pre-selection with a view to joining the team that would represent Cuba in the Youth World Baseball Championship to be held in Taipei, China in September 2013, although he was not selected for the National Youth Team.

National Series
He made his debut in Cuban national championships during the LIII National Baseball Series, 2013-2014, as a left-handed pitcher, showing the qualities that quickly led him to join the national team. In that Series 53 his team obtained first place under the direction of Alfonso Urquiola, so they won the right to represent Cuba in the Caribbean Series.

In the LVI National Baseball Series, where his team did not qualify for the second phase, he was requested as reinforcement for the Holguín team. After this team failed to qualify for the semifinals, he was asked to reinforce the Matanzas team, which ultimately lost in the seventh game of the playoff against the Granma team on January 15, 2017, leaving the Matanzas team in third place in this championship.

He did not participate in the first phase of the LVIII National Baseball Series, as he was playing with the SoftBank Hawks Club of the Japanese Professional Baseball League. His team did not qualify for the second phase, so he was requested as reinforcement for the Ciego de Ávila team.

Like the previous year, he did not participate in the first phase of the LIX National Baseball Series because he was playing with the SoftBank Hawks Club of the Japanese Professional Baseball League. His team failed to qualify for the second stage, so he was chosen as reinforcement for Ciego de Ávila for the grand final.

National Team
With his Pinar del Río team much reinforced with players from other teams, he represented Cuba in the LVII Caribbean Series in San Juan, Puerto Rico from February 2-8, 2015, in which the Pinar del Río team won the title.

Commanded by Cuba's new manager, Róger Machado in June-July of that year, he was part of Team Cuba that faced in the traditional annual games the national team of Nicaragua and the university team of the United States, as preparation for the XVII Pan American Games; the first in Cuba and the second in the United States, where he also played in a four-team tournament called Festival of the Americas, with university teams from the United States and the national teams of that country and Canada. In the XVII Pan American Games of Toronto 2015, his team obtained the bronze medal.

He participated in the Premier 12 tournament, held from November 8-21, 2015 in China Taipei and Japan, where Cuba's national team could not advance to the semifinals after being defeated by the Korea team (7-2) in the quarterfinals.

He joined as reinforcement the Tigres de Ciego de Ávila team that participated in the 58 Caribbean Series held at the Juan Marichal stadium in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from February 1-7, 2016, where his team managed to obtain only one victory against the Dominican Republic team Leones del Escogido, to advance to the semifinal where they competed with Venados de Mazatlán, from Mexico, which won the victory 7-2, and later became champion of this championship.

He was part of the pre-selection and subsequently the selection of Team Cuba that faced in a friendly match against the Tampa Bay Rays, a team from American Major Leagues that played at the Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana on March 22 of that year[23] and achieved the victory with a score of 4-1.

He was selected to participate in the All-Star Game of the LVI National Baseball Series held on October 29 at the Victoria de Girón Stadium in Matanzas, where the western all-stars won with a score of 2-1 runs against the eastern all-stars.

He joined as reinforcement the Granma team that participated in the 59 Caribbean Series held in Culiacán, Mexico from February 1-7, 2017, where his team performed meritoriously by winning 3 games in the qualifying stage, despite losing in a tight 1-0 duel in the semifinals against the Águilas de Mexicali, placing fourth.

He was part of the roster of Team Cuba that represented us in the IV World Baseball Classic held starting March 7, 2017, in Taipei, China to begin the preparatory tour through Asia before his debut against Japan at the Tokyo Dome stadium. In the same, the Cuban national team could not advance past the second round, finishing in seventh position among 16 teams.

He was selected as reinforcement for the Leñadores de Las Tunas team to participate in the LXI Caribbean Series scheduled to be held in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, starting February 2, 2019, and which ended up being played February 4-10 of that same month in Panama as an emerging venue due to the situation of instability in Venezuela.

He was part of the Baseball team that represented Cuba in the Pan American Games of Lima 2019, held from July 26 to August 11, which finished in sixth place in the standings.

Professional Baseball
On May 10, 2017, he signed a contract with the club Fukuoka SoftBank Hawk, of the Japanese Professional Baseball League. In it he developed a commendable performance with his SoftBank Hawks team, which disputed the title against the DeNA Stars, becoming champion of the Japan Series after his team prevailed, 4-3, in 11 innings against the DeNA Stars.

He was hired again by this League in 2018, obtaining for the second consecutive time the title of champion of the Pacific League of Japan with the SoftBank Hawks.

Liván signed again for Japan's MLB in the years 2019 and 2020.

Recognition
Selected among the 10 most outstanding athletes of 2015 in Pinar del Río.
Selected by the press and the National Baseball Management as a member of the All-Star Defense team of the LV National Baseball Series, as a left-handed pitcher.
Chosen among the 10 best athletes of 2016 in Pinar del Río.
He obtained the distinction along with his teammate, volleyball player Laura Beatriz Suárez, as the best athlete in team sports in 2017 in his province.
Special recognition for his meritorious performance in 2018 in the Pacific League of Japan with the SoftBank Hawks.

The player from Pinar del Río has maintained his effectiveness at 0.0 in the Pacific zone, to continue his good performance in that country.