(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
    Hitting streak Curt Smith ends; Wuillians Vásquez extends streak
Nederlands
  CHINANDEGA / RIVAS (Nicaragua) -
In the second full week of the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Nacional, Curt Smith and Wuillians Vásquez continued to be productive in the Nicaraguan professional competition, which opened on October 28.
Curaçao-born Dutch professional Smith and Venezuelan Vásquez both had a long hitting streak from the start of the season.
Smith's streak ended after ten games, but Vásquez has extended his streak to 13 games.
The four teams in the LBPN have now all played 13 games.
Gigantes de Rivas, which is the reigning champion, leads with an 8-5 record.
Indios del Boér, Tigres de Chinandega and Oriental de Granada are all tied with a 6-7 record.
...Curt Smith connects during this years...
...European Championship...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
On Tuesday (November 8), Gigantes won 7-6 against Oriental.
The team trailed 6-2, but scored five runs with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning to win the game.
Wuillians Vásquez, who plays for Gigantes, set a record with five walks (including two intentional walks).
On Wednesday and Thursday, Curt Smith was productive in two games for Tigres.
He was 3-for-5 with a double and RBI on Wednesday in a 6-5 against Indios.
The next day, Smith batted 2-for-3 with a double in an 1-0 loss against Gigantes.
In that game, Vásquez was 1-1, which was a runscoring double that led to the lone run, which was scored in the first inning.
Both Smith and Vásquez extended their hitting streak from the start of the season to 10 games.
On Friday, Smith's hitting streak ended, as he was 0-for-3 in an 8-2 loss against Oriental.
Winning pitcher in that game was Róger Luque, who struckout four batters, walked six and gave up six hits in seven innings.
In 2010, the Venezuelan played in the Dutch big league for HCAW, where he was a teammate of Vásquez.
...Róger Luque... | 
...Wuillians Vásquez... |
| (© Both Photos: Henk Seppen) |
Last Saturday, in the next game between the Tigres and Gigantes, Smith and Vásquez both homered.
Gigantes won 4-1, thanks to two homeruns by Vásquez.
The Venezuelan hit a 2-run homerun in the first inning and a solo-homerun in the third at bat.
It marked the third time that Vásquez hit two homeruns in one game in the Nicaraguan league, as he also did it in 2013 and 2014.
Smith accounted for the lone run of Tigres with a homerun in the second inning.
This was Smith's fifth homerun of the season to lead the league.
The highest total last season was six.
On Sunday, in a 9-7 loss in 13 innings against Oriental, Vásquez was 2-for-6 for Gigantes.
With that, Vásquez extended his hitting streak to 13 games.
At the moment, Smith hits .333 (16-for-48), scored seven runs and batted in 11.
As mentioned, he leads the league with five homeruns.
Vásquez hits .449 and leads the league with 24 runs batted in.
Luque pitched in four games and is 1-1 with a 4.73 ERA.
Italian outfielder Paolino Ambrosino, who is a teammate of Smith at Tigres, is hitting .185 with one double.
(November 15)
Related Article:
 Curt Smith shows power in Nicaragua. (November 7)
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