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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Surprise wins Mexico, Canada; Puerto Rico, USA also win
Nederlands
  TAOYUAN / TAICHUNG (Taiwan) -
On Day 3 of the Premier12 four games were played, two of them ending with a surprising result.
With today's games, all 12 teams have now come into action.
In the afternoon, Mexico, the number 12 on the world ranking, suprised by winning 6-4 vs. number 10 Venezuela.
Also, in the the afternoon, Puerto Rico (nr. 9 on the rankings) outscored Italy (number 11), 7-1.
In the evening, the USA (number 2) won big with an 11-5 score vs. the Dominican Republic (number 6).
Another upset was recorded by Canada (number 7), which won with a convincing score of 5-1 vs. Cuba (number 3).
The team of the Kingdom of the Netherlands will play its next game on Wednesday, starting at 12:35 PM local time (5:35 AM Dutch time).
(November 10)
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On a windy afternoon at Taoyuan Baseball Stadium in Taoyuan, Mexico opened the score with two runs in the top of the third inning, then Venezuela answered with a 4-run rally in the bottom half.
But in the final three innings, Mexico added four runs to come from behind and win 6-4.
In the top of the third inning, off of starting pitcher Freddy Garcia, Mexico scored two runs with one out.
Juan Perez was then hit by a pitch, stole second base and scored on a following double by Kevin Medrano.
Next batter Tim Torres added a runscoring single to make it 2-0.
In the bottom of the third, Venezuela rallied for four runs off of starter Cesar Carrillo.
José Yepez led off with a single and Yonathan Sivira walked.
After the two had advanced on a sacrifice bunt, they both scored on a single by Gregorio Petit to tie the score.
As the ball went by the catcher on the throw to the plate, Petit advanced to second base.
To set up a force play, next batter Frank Diaz was walked intentionally.
Juan Luis Rivera followed with a single that put Venezuela ahead, 3-2.
A walk for Luis Jimenez then loaded the bases and led to a pitching change.
Mark Serrano took over, but he saw the next run being scored on a sacrifice fly by Francis Carabello, that made it 4-2.
It also was to be the last Venezuelan run, as they were held scoreless in the remainder of the game.
Venezuela was retired in order in the next four innings, then got its first baserunner again in the eighth, but at that time, the team trailed 5-4.
Venezuela is managed by former Major Leaguer Luis Sojo.
He played for 13 years (1990-2003) in the big league, including seven with the New York Yankees.
Mexico got one runner in the three middle innings, then scored a run in the seventh.
Rudy Flores led off with a double off of Garcia, who was still pitching for Venezuela.
Hereafter, Humberto Sosa singled to put runners on first and third base.
A sacrifice fly by Brandon Macias then narrowed the deficit to 4-3.
It also marked the end for Freddy García, a Major League-veteran of 15 years (1999-2013).
The 39-year old righthander and two-time All Star pitched for seven teams, including six years with the Seattle Mariners.
Josue Castellano took over, but the lefthander got the bases loaded when he hit Juan Perez and walked Kevin Medrano.
Another pitching change followed.
New pitcher Yoel Hernandez was then supported with an inning-ending double play.
In the eighth inning, Mexico re-took the lead when Gabriel Alfaro took over the Venezuelan pitching.
With one out, he gave up a single to Robert Lopez, then walked Rudy Flores with two outs.
Next batter Humberto Sosa followed with a 2-run double that gave Mexico a 5-4 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, after 15 batters had been retired in order, Frank Diaz singled with one out for Venezuela, but a double play followed.
Mexico then added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on a sac-fly by Robert Lopez.
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...Official Scorers Linda Steijger, Oscar Eduardo Izaguirre...
...and Andres De Leon... |
At Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung in the afternoon, Puerto Rico won 7-1 vs. Italy.
Dutch scorer Linda Steijger was one of the three Official Scorers at this game, accompanied by Andres De Leon (Panama) and Oscar Eduardo Izaguirre (Venezuela).
After three scoreless innings, Italy was close to opening the score in the top of the fourth inning off of Andres Santiago.
Alessandro Vaglio led off with a double, then Mario Chiarini walked.
A force play-grounder by Alberto Mineo followed, which eliminated Chiarini, but resulted in runners on first and third base.
Next batter Alex Sambucci flied out to rightfield, then Vaglio took off to score.
The ball was thrown to catcher Omir Santos, who then tagged Vaglio inches before he could reach the plate.
However, in doing so, Santos sat in front of the plate blocking Vaglio, who was unable to slide into the plate and instead slid against the left leg of Santos.
Italy Manager Marco Mazzieri argued with Home Plate Umpire Hua-Wen Chi from Taiwan regarding the 'collission rule', but the inning ended with the out at the plate and thus a double play.
Moments later, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Puerto Rico took an 1-0 lead.
Richard Thon led off with a single, then moved on a wild pitch.
Juan Silva then walked.
An attempt to move the runners via a bunt ended in a pop-out, but then Aldo Mendez followed with a double that gave Puerto Rico an 1-0 lead.
Puerto Rico rallied for three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning off of Trey Nielsen.
With one out, Jay Gonzalez walked and Jack Lopez singled.
Both then scored when Richard Thon followed with a triple off the fence in rightfield.
Shortly hereafter, Thon scored the next run on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.
In the sixth, Puerto Rico took more distance, adding two runs.
Reliever Andrea Pizziconi walked Aldo Mendez, then hit Luis Rivera with a pitch.
Hereafter, Pizziconi was relieved by Orlando Oberto.
This led to another discussion.
After making the pitching change, Italian Manager Marco Mazzieri started to walk back to the dug-out, but was met by Home Plate Umpire Hua-Wen Chi.
A lenghty discussion followed, which almost surely had to with the total of (free) trips that had been made to the mound.
According to international rules, coaches have three free trips to the mound during the game for talks with the pitcher.
A free trip is when a pitcher is not removed.
After the third free trip, each following trip automatically will result in a pitching change.
It was clear from the beginning that Mazzieri's trip to the mound was to change pitchers, as he took the ball from Pizziconi when he arrived at the mound.
As there was some talk with the new pitcher and some of the infielders, this might have resulted in some confusion.
When the game continued, the two runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Jorge Jimenez.
Next, a squeeze failed, but then, with two outs, both runners scored on a double by Jay Gonzalez to make it 6-1.
In the eighth, Italy scored its lone run off of reliever Fernando Guerrero.
With two outs, Juan Carlos Infante singled, then scored on a double by Erick Epifano.
In the bottom of the eighth, Puerto Rico scored its final run on a basesloaded walk to make it a 7-1 score.
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In the evening, at Taoyuan, the USA win 11-5 vs. the Dominican Republic.
The Americans initially took a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but saw the Dominicans come alongside in the second at bat.
Team USA then rallied for six runs in the third to take a comfortable 9-3 lead.
In this game, Dutch umpire Winfried Berkvens was assigned to his first game of the event.
Berkvens was the 1B Umpire and was joined by Atsushi Kittaka (Japan) behind the plate, Chung-Hung Wang (Taiwan) at second base and Edgar Estivison (Panama) at third base.
In the bottom of the first inning, off of starter Victor Mateo, the Americans scored three runs.
Jacob May and Joe Sclafani led off with a walk.
With one out, the first scored on a single by Dan Black.
Kyle Martin followed with an RBI-double and, with two outs, the third run was scored on a single by Adam Frazier.
Martin also tried to score, but he was thrown out at the plate.
In the second inning, the Dominicans reacted with three runs of their own to come alongside off of starter Zeke Spruill, who gave up four consecutive basehits.
Wilson Betemit led off with a homerun, then Miguel Olivo doubled and Aneury Tavares singled.
Next batter Wilkin Ramirez also singled to narrow the deficit to 3-2.
With one out, the tying run was scored on a sacrifice fly by Ronny Rodriguez.
After stranding three runners in the bottom of the second inning, the Americans rallied for six runs in the next at bat to take control over the game.
With one out, Tyler Pastornicky doubled, then scored on a triple by Adam Frazier to give Team USA a renewed lead.
When next batter Dan Rohlfing walked, a pitching change followed.
Dioni Soriano took over, but he ran into problems.
First, a run was scored when an error was made on a force play-grounder by Brett Phillips.
Then, the bases got loaded when Jacob May walked.
Two more runs then were added on a single by Elliot Soto, who advanced himself to second base on the throw to the plate.
With two outs, a force play was created by walking Dan Black intentionally, but hereafter Kyle Martin added a 2-run single to increase the lead to 9-3.
The Dominicans got one run back in the fifth inning when Teoscar Hernandez homered.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Americans scored two more runs on a single by Bret Eibner and a sacrifice fly by Dan Black, making it an 11-4 score.
A double by Anderson Feliz led to the fifth and final Dominican run in the sixth at bat.
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In the evening, at Taichung, Canada registered a surprising 5-1 victory vs. Cuba.
It even was a very convincing victory, as Cuba was held scoreless after scoring in the first inning and the powerful hitters collected only five basehits off of three pitchers.
Cuba will face the Netherlands Team on Wednesday.
Canada took a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning and never looked back.
Cuban starter Yosbany Torres saw lead-off hitter Tyson Gillies reach on an error, then gave up a homerun to next batter Pete Orr.
With one out, Jordan Lennerton singled and scored the third run on a 2-out single by Taylor Green, who was the first batter to face new pitcher Livan Moinelo.
Cuba got one run back in the bottom of the first inning off of Chris Leroux without hiting a basehit.
Lead-off hitter Julio Martinez was hit by a pitch.
With one out, the bases were loaded when Lourdes Gurriel and Yulieski Gurriel both walked.
Martinez then scored on a sacrifice fly by Alfredo Despaigne, but Cuba would leave two runners.
Hereafter, the game remained scoreless in the next five innings with both teams stranding some runners.
Canada was retired in order in the second, fourth and fifth inning.
The team stranded two runners in the third and sixth at bat.
Cuba was retired in order in the second and fifth inning and got a runner on base in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth inning.
But the team only got into only twice in this period, in the third and fifth inning.
In the top of the fifth inning, Canada took more distance, adding two runs off of Moinelo, who did a good after taking over in the first at bat.
However, in this inning, he got some baserunners and threw more to first base than to the batter.
Tyson Gillies led off with a single, then Moinelo made nine pick-off throws to first base.
He then gave up a single to Tyler O'Neill and followed with six more pick-offs, while also retiring a batter.
Rene Tosoni then also singled to give Canada another run and bring in veteran Manager Victor Mesa for a pitching change.
Norberto Gonzalez took over, but began with a wild pitch, which the next Canadian run and made it a 5-1 score.
Cuba was then retired in order again in the seventh and stranded two runners in the eighth.
In the ninth, Alexander Malleta led off with a single, but a strikeout and double play then ended the game.
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Copyright © 1997-2015 Marco Stoovelaar / Grand Slam * Stats & News.
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