(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
    Smith, De Caster, Ricardo in Nicaraguan Final; Triple Crown Vásquez
Nederlands
 CHINANDEGA (Nicaragua) -
Netherlands National Team-players Curt Smith, Yurendell de Caster and Dashenko Ricardo will play in the Championship Final of the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Nacional.
The three Curaçao-born players qualified for the best-of-seven Championship Series of Nicaragua with Tigres de Chinandega on the final day of the regular season.
Venezuelan Wuillians Vásquez won the Triple Crown and will play in the Semi-Final, that begins on Friday.
Tigres de Chinandega, the team of Smith, De Caster and Ricardo, closed the regular season on Wednesday (January 4) with a huge 15-0 shutout win against Indios del Bóer.
With that, Tigres raised their record to 27-21 to finish in first place.
Gigantes de Rivas won 5-1 on Wednesday against Oriental de Granada to finish in second place with a 26-22 record.
On Tuesday, Bóer nipped Gigantes 4-3 to become the third team to qualify for the Play-Offs.
That meant the elimination for Oriental.
Gigantes and Bóer now will face each other in the best-of-five Play-Off, that begins on Friday.
The winner of this series meets Tigres in the best-of-seven Final, that opens on January 13.
Last season, De Caster won the Championship-title when he played for Gigantes and was a teammate of Vásquez.
In the Final, Gigantes then faced Oriental de Granada, which had finished in first place to reach the Final, but now didn't made the postseason.
Last season, Tigres was eliminated in the Play-Offs by Gigantes.
...Wuillians Vásquez hitting...
...for HCAW in 2010...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Venezuelan Wuillians Vásquez, who in 2010 played in the Dutch Major League for HCAW, can look back to an outstanding season.
He won the Triple Crown by becoming the Best Hitter with a .407 batting average, 55 runs batted in and 11 homeruns.
Vásquez was closely followed in the stats by Curt Smith, who also had a great and productive season.
Smith ended up in second place with 10 homeruns and 40 RBI's and was the third best hitter with a .381 average.
The second best hitter was Maykel Cáceres of Bóer, who batted .393.
In its final game of the season, Tigres rallied for nine runs in the fourth inning against Bóer, en route to a 15-0 win.
The team collected 21 basehits, including four by Edgard Montiel.
Dashenko Ricardo was 3-for-6 with a double and batted in two runs, while Yurendell de Caster was 2-for-3 with three RBI's.
Curt Smith was 1-for-6, but also batted in one run.
In the fourth, Tigres connected for nine basehits, including six in a row.
Montiel and De Caster each had two basehits in the productive at bat, while Jimmy González scored twice in this inning.
Gigantes led only 2-1 in its final game against Oriental, but then rallied for three runs in the eighth to take more distance.
Gigantes recorded 10 basehits, including one by Wuillians Vásquez.
As he was the leading hitter with a chance of winning the Triple Crown, the Venezuelan initially didn't start the game.
He then singled when he entered as pinch-hitter in the eighth inning.
With his 72nd basehit of the season, he raised his average to .407.
Vásquez becomes the second player in the 12-year history of the LBPN to win a Triple Crown.
The first one to do so was Yurendell de Caster in the 2012-2013 season, who then batted .416, batted in 56 runs and belted 13 homeruns.
...Curt Smith connecting for the Netherlands during the...
...2016 European Championships...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
With his accomplishments this season, Vásquez becomes the prime candidate to be named Most Valuable Player.
Vásquez also was Nicaragua's Best Hitter in the 2013-2014 season when he batted .351.
With his .407 average, Vásquez becomes the third player to hit above .400.
De Caster was the first with a .416 average in the 2012-2013 season.
Last season, Jonel Pacheco of Tigres set a record with .427.
In the 2012-2013 season, De Caster set a league-record with 56 runs batted in.
Vásquez ended up one short this season, finishing with 55.
Curt Smith was the Best Hitter of Tigres with his .389 batting average.
He won the Team Triple Crown, as he also led the squad with his 10 homeruns and 39 RBI's.
Smith was second in the team with 34 runs scored, but led with 63 basehits.
In his first season with Tigres, Yurendell de Caster batted .320 with nine homeruns, 26 runs batted in and 32 runs scored.
In his first Nicaraguan season, Dashenko Ricardo batted .242 after joining Tigres in November.
Ricardo played in 25 games and collected 23 basehits, including four doubles.
The catcher scored 11 runs and batted in 14.
(January 5)
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