Dominican Republic wins a close one over Puerto Rico, 2-1

by Guille Esquivel
Ebeisbol.com Exclusive

The Leones del Escogido got their first win as they squeaked by and beat the Indios de Mayagüez 2-1 in the first game of the 2010 Caribbean Series.

There is a great rivalry between these two teams and an exciting game is always expected. They never fail in providing entertainment when they meet and that was the case in this matchup.

The Puerto Rican team is managed by Mako Olivares who is the winningest coach in Puerto Rican league history with seven titles and he adds two Caribbean Series titles to his trajectory. The Dominican team is led by Ken Oberkfell who led the Leones del Escogido to their first title in 18 years.

Escogido is making their fifth official appearance as they were the league champions in 1981, but a Caribbean Series was not played that year. The Dominican Republic is looking for their 18th title making them the winningest team.

Puerto Rico who is second in titles is looking for their 15th title in their history. The Indios de Mayaguez are representing their team for the first since 2005 where they only won one game in Mazatlan . 

The Dominican team was first to get on the board when they capitalized on a sloppy first inning by the Puerto Rican defense. Freddy Guzman got on base on an error by first baseman Randy Ruiz. Guzman stole third and came around to score when third baseman David Valencia tripped and failed to make the throw home, Escogido took the 1-0 lead.

The first hit for the Dominican team came in the bottom of the fourth on a single off the bat of Willis Otanez against Puerto Rico starter Mario Santiago who belongs to the Royals’ organization.

Mayaguez’ Miguel Abreu opened the sixth inning with a single to center off of Raul Valdes and came around to score on Edgardo Baez’ fielder’s choice tying the game at 1. Valdes pitched six innings allowing one run, six hits while striking out eight batters.

The game did not remain tied for long as Kevin Barker the second batter for the Escogido in the bottom half of the sixth inning took Santiago deep to left field for the solo homerun. Dominican Republic took the 2-1 lead. The homerun along with the errors blemished an otherwise spotless outing for Santiago who pitched seven innings, allowing three hits, one earned run, walking one while striking out eight.

The Puerto Rican team went down fighting as they attempted to take advantage of the errors committed by the Dominican defense in the eighth inning. Ruiz got on base on the error by third baseman Alexander Valdez to open up the inning. Next batter, Raul Casanova hit an easy fly ball to left field that was dropped by Juan Francisco. Ruiz attempted to score from first and was gunned down at home ending the threat.

Joel Peralta pitched two scoreless innings in relief only allowing one hit, one walk and striking out one batter. Dario Veras came out in the ninth to close out the game for the Dominican Republic.