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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by LCBP)
 Caimanes capture title in professional Colombian league
Nederlands
  MONTERÍA / SANTA CRUZ DE LORICA (Colombia) -
Caimanes Olímpica de Barranquilla has captured the Championship-title in the Liga Colombiana de Béisbol Profesional.
On Saturday (January 23), the team won 8-6 vs. last years champion Leones Comfacor de Montería in eleven innings in Game 6 to win the best-of-seven, 4-2.
For Caimanes, this is its ninth title since winning the first one in the 1984-1985 season.
As champion, Caimanes now will represent Colombia in the upcoming Serie Latinoamericana, which opens on Tuesday (January 26) in Nicaraguan capital Managua.
Also participating in that event are the champions of the professional winter leagues in Nicaragua, Panama and Mexico.
...Colombian champion Caimanes Olímpica...
(© Photo: LCBP) |
Venezuelan lefthanded pitcher Moisés Meléndez Izaguirre, who in 2011 pitched in the Dutch big league for HCAW, played for Toros de Sincelejo, one of the four teams in the professional Colombian league.
In the best-of-five Play-Offs, the Toros lost 3-1 to the Leones.
Meléndez was the starting and losing pitcher in the first game.
He then struckout three batters, but gave up three hits and four runs in 3 2/3 inning.
The Toros won the second game, 10-2, but lost the next two games, 4-3 and 5-4, to be eliminated.
In the regular season, Meléndez was 2-3 and struckout 35 batters in 41 innings, while giving 48 hits (no homeruns) and 17 runs.
The lefthander closed the season with a 2.85 ERA.
Caimanes had qualified automatically for the Championship Final by finishing in first place in the regular season with a 26-16 record.
Leones (23-19) and Toros (19-23) finished in second and third place respectively and had to face each other in the Play-Offs.
Tigres de Cartagena finished in fourth place with a 16-26 record.
Caimanes played their games in this series in Lorica, instead of playing in Estadio Tomás Arrieta, its home site in Barranquilla.
That stadium has closed for reconstruction-work.
Professional baseball in Colombia started in 1948, but stopped in 1958.
It was then re-started in 1979, but stopped again in 1988.
In 1993, professional baseball was introduced for the third time and continues successfully until today.
In 1999, Colombian Major Leaguer Édgar Rentería, who then played for St. Louis Cardinals, and some other Colombian players, founded the current Professional Baseball League, which is led by Team Rentería.
Édgar Rentería retired from the Major League in 2013.
(January 25)
Related Articles:
 Nacionales champion of professional league in Panamá. (January 25, 2016)
De Caster and Gigantes win Nicaraguan title; Vásquez MVP! (January 20, 2016)
Former HCAW-pitcher active in professional Colombian league. (November 29, 2015)
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Game 1
In the opening game of the best-of-seven, on Saturday (January 16) at Estadio 3 de Mayo in Lorica, Caimanes Olímpica won convincingly with a 9-0 shutout vs. Leones Comfacor de Montería.
Two players of Leones, Sneider Batista and Reynaldo Rodríguez, were ejected after arguing regarding a double play.
Caimanes opened the score in the second inning thanks to a double by Efraín Contreras, who then scored himself moments later.
Leading 2-0, Art Charles homered in the fourth inning.
Contreras, who also had batted in he fourth run, then homered himself in the sixth inning, followed by a homerun by Carlos Vidal.
With a runner on base, Gerson Montilla accounted for the fourth homerun of the evening in the seventh inning
Contreras was 3-for-4, scored twice and batted in four runs.
Leones collected only six basehits off of four pitchers.
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Game 2
On Sunday, at Lorica, the Caimanes won 4-2.
Caimanes scored all their runs in the first inning.
This time, it was Steve Brown, who opened the score with a homerun.
Hereafter, Efraín Contreras and Carlos Vidal delivered back-to-back doubles to produce the next run.
Vidal would later score on an error, while a single by Carlos Perdomo would result into the fourth run.
In the fifth, Leones scored their first run, when an error followed a basehit by Diover Ávila.
In the sixth, Leones narrowed the deficit to 4-2 via a single by Eudy Piña.
But hereafter, the pitching of the Caimanes silenced the Leones.
Both teams collected 10 basehits.
American Charlie Gillies started for Caimanes, struckout five in 5 2/3 inning and was the winning pitcher.
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Game 3
On Tuesday, at Estadio 18 de Junio in Montería, the Leones won 3-2 in the best-of-seven final against Caimanes, which had won the first two games.
Marcos Daniel Pineda, Mayor of the City of Montería, threw the ceremonial first pitch before the start of the game.
The ball was caught by Luis Hoyos Cartagana, the Director of Comfacor, which is the main sponsor of the Leones.
It went on to become a very exciting and suspenseful game.
The decision came in the tenth inning when Carlos Willoughby walked and scored on a walk-off double by Chencho Rodríguez.
Leones had scored twice in the second inning when Leandro Castro and Eudy Piña crossed home plate.
The Caimanes answered with a run in the third inning when Ronald Ramírez scored on a hit by Dominican Fidel Peña.
A homerun by Art Charles tied the score in the fourth at bat.
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Game 4
On Wednesday, in Montería, Caimanes Olímpica took a 3-1 lead in the championship series by winning 5-2 vs. Leones Comfacor.
Caimanes scored twice in the first inning.
Pitcher Deiber Sánchez gave up a single to Carlos Perdomo, then three walks followed.
Hereafter, a sacrifice fly by Efraín Contreras accounted for the second run.
Leones came alongside in the second inning via a triple by Eudy Piña.
Caimanes re-took the lead by scoring two runs in the fourth at bat on runscoring basehits by Ronald Ramírez and Fidel Peña.
They then added an insurance run in the eighth on a hit by Art Charles.
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Game 5
On Thursday, in Montería, Leones Comfacor won 3-1 to narrow the deficit in the best-of-seven to 3-2.
Before the game, the ceremonial first pitch was thrown by David Luna Sánchez, the Colombian Minister of Technologies, Information and Communication.
22-year old righthanded American Alí Williams was the winning pitcher and gave up only one basehit in the seven innings he threw.
He gave up the lone run of the Caimanes in the first inning when Carlos Perdomo walked, advanced on a sacrifice bunt and scored on an error.
Leones came alongside in the second inning when Manuel Boscán singled and scored on a double by Bryan Martelo.
In the fourth, Leones took the lead on another single by rookie Boscán.
Leones added an insurance run in the eighth inning on back-to-back doubles by Reynaldo Rodríguez and Dominican Leandro Castro.
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Game 6
On Saturday, at Lorica, Caimanes Olímpica won 8-6 vs. Leones Comfacor in a suspensful 11-inning game that last five hours.
With the win, Caimanes won the best-of-seven 4-2 to become the champion of the professional Colombian baseball league.
The game was decided in the bottom of the eleventh inning with a walk-off, 2-run homerun by American Art Charles.
Two American pitchers started the game.
Erick Gonçalves for Leones and Charlie Gillies for Caimanes.
Leones opened the score in the first inning when Reynaldo Rodríguez singled and scored on a double by Leandro Castro.
The lead was shortlived, as Caimanes scored twice in its first at bat when Gerson Montilla delivered a 2-run double.
But this lead also was erased quickly, as Leones came alongside in the top of the second inning.
In the top of the sixth, Leones took a 5-2 lead.
A single by Sneider Batista gave Leones a renewed lead, then a runscoring single by Carlos Willoughby was followed by an outfield-error, resulting in another run.
Caimanes got two runs back in the bottom of the sixth, then tied the score again in the seventh thanks to a single by Efraín Contreras.
With the score tied, the game went into extra innings.
Leones then took the lead for the third time in the tenth inning on a hit by Carlos Willoughby, but again Caimanes came alongside.
This time via a double by Jesús Posso.
In the bottom of the 11th inning, the game was delayed for 20 minutes after the Home Plate Umpire was hit on his mask and had to be attended.
When the game resumed, Fidel Peña reached base, then, with one out, Art Charles hit his walk-off homerun to end the game.
In the regular season, Charles led the league with eight homeruns.
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