Gigantes opened the score quickly, as lead-off hitter Anderson Feliz led off the game with a homerun down the rightfield-line off of starter Fidencio Flores.
Hereafter, Jimmy González (single) and Wuillians Vásquez (walk) also reached base, but then Flores recovered and followed with a strikeout.
The inning ended when short stop Fausto Suárez caught a line drive hit by next batter Yurendell de Caster and was able to double up González at second base.
José Campusano led off for Orientales in the first inning with a single off of starter Jonathan Aristill, but a double play followed.
Jonel Pachecho then also reached on a single, but was left behind on first base.
In the second inning, Flores gave up singles to Luis Allen Salazar (lead-off) and Omar Obregón (with two outs), but they stranded when the righthander struckout Anderson Feliz.
...Another trophy for Yurendell de Caster...
...Here, he is with the trophy after winning...
...the European title in 2014...
...Tonight, he batted in 2 runs with...
...a double and scored once...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Like Gigantes, Orientales also got its lead-off batter on base again in its second at bat.
Yosmani Guerra led off with a single, moved on a wild pitch with two outs, but then was left behind.
Gigantes increased its lead in the top of the third inning.
The two veterans of the team both reached base after being hit by a pitch from Fidencio Flores.
Jimmy González led off and was hit by a pitch, then Dominican Rubén Mateo was hit with one out.
González and Mateo, who are both 37 years old, then scored when Yurendell de Caster followed with a 2-run double down the leftfield-line, lifting the lead to 3-0.
It led to a pitching change, as José Villegas took over.
De Caster then advanced on a grounder by Luis Allen Salazar and scored on a single to Dwight Britton to make it a 4-0 score.
A single by Ramón Flores followed, but Gigantes then left two runners behind.
Orientales was able do something back in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Donell Linares, Renato Morales and Moisés Flores all began the inning with singles off of Jonathan Aristill.
Next batter Fausto Suárez then hit through the middle and appeared to record the fourth consecutive basehit.
However, short stop Omar Obregón made a nice play and forced out Flores at second base, but Linares scored the first run for the home team.
It also led to a pitching change, as Aristill was relieved by Carlos Teller, who already had started two previous games.
Another run appeared to be in the making when José Campusano flied out into rightfield.
But rightfielder Ramón Flores followed with a strong throw to the plate, which kept Morales at third base, but brought Suárez to second base.
Moments later, Morales did score the second run for Orientales on a wild pitch during a strikeout of Ofilio Castro, who reached first base.
A brief heated moment followed when Teller (with a 2-2 count) threw the ball behind the back of next batter Jonel Pacheco.
The Venezuelan walked towards the mound, was stopped by the catcher and the Home Plate Umpire and some players entered the field from both dug-outs.
Order was restored quickly, Home Plate Umpire Leonel Cajina called both Managers with him and after a brief discussion, the game continued.
On the next pitch, Teller struckout Pacheco to end the inning, but Orientales had narrowed the deficit to 4-2.
Gigantes left two runners in scoring position in the top of the sixth inning, but its defense made some nice plays in the bottom of the at bat.
Lead-off hitter Juan Carlos Torres was hit by a pitch.
Hereafter, short stop Omar Obregón then initially misplayed a grounder by Yosmani Guerra.
But he recovered quickly and got the ball in time to scond baseman Jimmy González, who also got it in time at first baseman Yurendell de Caster to complete a nice double play.
Moments later, González made a nice play on a hard grounder by Donell Linares to end the inning.
In the top of the seventh, the defense of Orientales also made some nice plays.
First, third baseman Ofilio Castro caught a hard line drive by lead-off hitter Wuillians Vásquez.
With two outs, Yurendell de Caster drove the ball into deep leftfield, but there leftfielder Jonel Pacheco caught it just before the fence.
In the top of the eighth, Gigantes got the bases loaded with no outs, but failed to enlarge their lead.
Luis Allen Salazar and Dwight Britton led off with basehits, which led to another pitching change.
Darwin Cubillán became the fourth pitcher for Orientales and made his fifth appearance in this series.
Cubillán was greeted with a single by Ramón Flores that loaded the bases.
Second baseman Yosvani Guerra then made a nice play, fielding a hard hit through the middle by Omar Obregón and forced out Allen at the plate.
Hereafter, Cubillán struckout Anderson Feliz.
Next, it was short stop Fausto Suárez, who made a nice play to force out Obregón at second base and end the inning.
After Cubillán had retired the side (two strikeouts) in the top of the ninth inning, Orientales got its final chance, trailing 4-2.
Teller began the bottom of the ninth inning with a strikeout, then gave up a single down the rightfield-line to Donell Linares.
He was replaced at first base by pinch-runner Iván Marín, who made his comeback after being injured some games ago.
Teller then struckout pinch-hitter Juan Oviedo, but Moisés Flores followed with a single through the middle.
And so, the tension was building.
It was building even more when pinch-hitter Janior Montes also delivered a single through the middle to bring in Marín and make it a 4-3 score.
But with runners on first and third base, Teller struckout José Campusano to end the game!
Related Articles:
 Orientales wins to force 7th game in Nicaraguan Final. (January 19)
Gigantes takes lead in Nicaraguan Final with comeback-win. (January 17)
Orientales equals Nicaraguan Final with 13th inning win. (January 16)
Oriental narrow deficit by winning G3 Nicaraguan Final. (January 15)
Gigantes, De Caster also win Game 2 Nicaraguan Final. (January 13)
Gigantes open Nicaraguan Final with win; Former HCAW-player homers. (January 12)
Yurendell de Caster in Nicaraguan Final. (January 11)
Curt Smith moves into first place in Nicaragua with Tigres. (November 29)
Curt Smith homers in first game in Nicaragua. (November 27)
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De Caster and Gigantes capture Nicaraguan title; Vásquez MVP!
GRANADA (Nicaragua) -
Gigantes de Rivas has captured the title in the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Nacional, the professional baseball-league of Nicaragua.
On Wednesday-evening (January 20), Gigantes won a suspenseful seventh game vs. Orientales de Granada with a 4-3 score to win the best-of-seven, 4-3.
It is the second title for Gigantes, which also won the championship in the 2013-2014 season.
Netherlands National Team-player Yurendell de Caster had an important contribution in the victory.
In the third inning, he batted in two runs with a double and then scored himself, making him responsible for three of the four runs of his team.