Mexico beats Venezuela in crucial game

by Guille Esquivel

Ebeisbol.com Exclusive

 

Mexico beat Venezuela 3-2 in an extra innings nail biter.

Mexico and Venezuela were both facing a must win situation because a loss would dash their title hopes.

Leones del Caracas struck first when Michael Ryan took Juan Delgadillo deep to left for the solo shot to take the 1-0 lead in the second inning.

With two outs in the third, Erold Andrus and Luis Maza strung together a couple of hits and Oscar Salazar drove in Andrus to go up 2-0.

After allowing two runs early on to Venezuela Delgadillo buckled down and retired 13 batters in a row. Delgadillo pitched eight innings allowing two runs on six hits while striking out three.

Mexico got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning when Luis Garcia hit a grounder to third scoring Chris Roberson and they now trailed 2-1.

Mexican slugger Karim Garcia finally made it to the island in hopes of helping his team avoid elimination. The Naranjeros de Hermosillo were in dire need of a left handed bat in their line up and Garcia soon proved why. In the sixth inning he hit Jose Sanchez’s pitch deep to right for the solo home run and tied the game at 2.

Sanchez was the third starter to have eight strikeouts in a game and he accomplished it through five innings. Sanchez pitched six innings allowing two runs on five hits and leaving with a no-decision.

Mexico missed an opportunity to close it out in the ninth inning when they loaded up the bases. Luis Garcia opened up the inning with a double, Ruben Rivera was intentionally walked and Carlos Valencia bunted them over. Humberto Cota also drew an intentional walk and Saul Soto grounded into an inning ending double play to end the threat.

Heber Gomez opened up the tenth with a single off Elio Serrano. Gomez advanced to second on Roberson’s sacrifice bunt. Then Venezuela ’s manager made a questionable move by intentionally walking Garcia to face Vinny Castilla. Castilla then singled deep to left center scoring Gomez to win the game 3-2.

Mexico will face the Dominican Republic and they have to win in order to keep their hopes alive.

Puerto Rico will play against Venezuela in Saturday’s nightcap. Venezuela has a chance to play spoiler.

Venezuela beats Puerto Rico 5-2 in a must win situation

by Guille Esquivel

Ebeisbol.com Exclusive

Leones del Caracas beat the Indios de Mayaguez 5-2 in what was an important game for both teams.

Mayaguez starter Juan Padilla played with the American Defenders of New Hampshire of the independent Can-Am League last season. He is a reliever by trade, but was used as a starter in the Puerto Rican Winter League in 2009 with the Leones de Ponce.

Venezuela got on the board early when Jesus Guzman singled to get on base and two batters later Raul Padron brought him in with a home run to right field off of Padilla to take the 2-0 lead in the second inning.

In the third inning, Venezuela did not let up and continued to punish Padilla. Carlos Maldonado singled to right scoring Oscar Salazar. Padron then singled to right scoring Guzman for his third RBI of the game. Padron went 2-4 with three RBI.

Mako Olivares, who entered the record books tying Francisco Paquin Estrada with seven appearances in the Caribbean Series, had seen enough and yanked Padilla in favor of Nelvin Fuentes.

Fuentes did not fare much better when he allowed back to back singles to open the fourth inning and Luis Maza proceeded to single to left scoring Gregorio Petit and giving his team the commanding lead, 5-0.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Puerto Rico showed signs of life when slugger Randy Ruiz hit a monster shot to center off Jason Simontacchi and ruined the shutout. Three batters later, Angel Sanchez reached base on an infield grounder and Edgardo Baez came in to score on shortstop Petit’s error and the Indios now trailed, 5-2.

Petit has committed three errors so far and is on pace to break Ivan DeJesus’ mark in a Caribbean Series.

Simontacchi pitched 4 1/3 innings allowing one earned run on eight hits, striking out five without allowing a walk.

Puerto Rico threatened in the bottom of the sixth inning loading up the bases on reliever Darwin Cubillan before he was pulled in favor of Edgar Estanga. Estanga induced an inning ending flyout to center to end the rally.

Venezuela and Puerto Rico had eleven hits apiece, but the Indios were unable to capitalize.

On Day 3 Puerto Rico will face Mexico in what is a do or die game for them. Puerto remains winless while Mexico has one victory and one loss.

Venezuela will meet the undefeated Dominican team in Thursday’s nightcap in what is the most anticipated matchup of the series.

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.