(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
     Smith, De Caster, Vásquez remain productive in Nicaragua
Nederlands
  CHINANDEGA / RIVAS (Nicaragua) -
Netherlands Team-players Curt Smith and Yurendell de Caster continue their productive season in the professional league in Nicaragua.
Venezuelan Wuillians Vásquez also continues his impressive season.
In the past two weeks, several records were broken in the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Nacional.
Back then, Curaçao-born Curt Smith led the league in homeruns, but he is now in second place behind Wuillians Vásquez.
On November 22, Vásquez extended his hitting streak since the start of the season to 19 games.
That streak ended a day later when he was 0-for-3.
These two days also provided the Nicaraguan baseball-fans with some exciting games, resulting in several records.
On November 22, the game between Indios del Bóer and Tigres de Chinandega was tied at 3-3 after nine innings.
In the tenth inning, Tigres (the team of Smith and De Caster) rallied for 11 runs and went on to win 14-5.
The eleven runs in one inning tied the record.
It marked the fourth time, a team scored eleven runs in one inning and each time, it was accomplished in a game betwen Bóer and Chinandega.
Both now have done it twice.
But the record was to be broken the next day!
In this game, Aruban pitcher Francisco Taveras made his debut.
He started for Tigres and threw 6 1/3 inning, giving up seven hits and two runs.
The next day, Bóer rallied for 14 (!) runs in the fourth inning in a 23-5 against Chinandega in a game that set several records.
The 23 runs scored by Bóer tied the record, which was set in 2012.
By hitting 28 basehits, Bóer set a record and broke the old one of 27, which was realized in 2011 by Leones de León.
The 14 runs in one inning also were a record.
Bóer also set a record in the productive at bat with 15 basehits (eight consecutive), breaking the old record of 11.
Janior Montes became the first player to hit three basehits (!) in one inning, while four others registered two.
Yurendell de Caster had three multi-hit games in a row.
On November 26, he was 2-for-4, the next day,, he batted 3-5.
That was followed by a 3-for-4 performance on November 29.
In this last game, Tigres lost 12-5 to Oriental de Granada, but De Caster and Smith contribute to the runs.
They hit back-to-back homeruns in the second inning.
Later, De Caster added a second homerun.
Oriental-pitcher Róger Luque also homered.
In 2010, he was a teammate of Wuillians Vásquez at HCAW in the Dutch Major League.
Last Friday (December 2), Wuillians Vásquez hits his eighth homerun of the season and comes alongside Curt Smith.
Despite the homerun, Gigantes de Rivas loses 9-5 to Tigres.
On Saturday, Vásquez homers again in a 23-5 victory of Gigantes at Oriental.
The team registers 30 basehits to set a new record.
Vásquez is 5-for-6 with two doubles and a homerun, scores twice and has two RBI's.
On the same day, Curt Smith also hits 5-for-6 with a double and a triple in a 16-5 win for Tigres at Bóer.
Yurendell de Caster is 3-for-6 with a double in this game.
The five hits in one game tie a league-record.
On Sunday, Vásquez hits his tenth homerun of the season in a 12-8 loss of Gigantes against Bóer.
It was the third game in a row in which Vásquez homered, the record is four.
Wuillians Vásquez now leads the league in the three Triple Crown-categories: Batting Average, Homeruns and Runs Batted In.
The Venezuelan first baseman hits .417 (45-for-108) with 10 homeruns and 41 runs batted in.
He also leads in runs scored (27) and basehits (45).
Vásquez also has 13 doubles.
After Sunday's game, Curt Smith hits .394 (39-for-99) with six doubles, one triple and eight homeruns.
He scored 19 runs and batted in 24.
Smith currently plays in the outfield, since De Caster had joined team.
Yurendell de Caster is .345 (19-for-55) in 13 games with five doubles and two homeruns.
He scored 15 runs and batted in nine.
Catcher Dashenko Ricardo, who joined Tigres a few weeks ago, is hitting .268 (11-for-41) in eleven games.
He scored six runs and batted in nine.
Italian outfielder Paulino Ambrosino, who started the season with Tigres and played in seven games (.185), has been released a few weeks ago.
As mentioned, 22-year old Aruban pitcher Francisco Taveras, who signed with Tigres a few weeks ago, has made his debut in the professional league.
He appeared in five games (four starts) so far and is 0-1 with a 5.94 ERA.
In 16 2/3 inning, Taveras struckout seven batters and also walked seven, but gave up 23 basehits and 20 runs.
(December 5)
Related Articles:
 Smith adds 2 HRs; Ricardo, De Caster make debut in Nicaragua. (November 19)
Hitting streak Curt Smith ends; Vásquez extends streak. (November 15)
Curt Smith shows power in Nicaragua. (November 7)
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