Game 11 - Venezuela vs. Puerto Rico (Semi-Final)
Puerto Rico rallied for four runs in the first inning and led 8-0 halfway the fifth.
Venezuela did its run-production from the fifth inning on and had a 4-run rally in the eighth, but ended up short and lost 9-6.
Puerto Rico began the event with three consecutive losses, then closed the preliminary round with a 10-2 win against the Dominican Republic on Saturday.
With that win, it secured itself of a 3-way tie and had a good chance to reach the Play-Offs.
However, on Saturday-evening, Puerto Rico got some help from Venezuela when that team handed Cuba its first loss.
Because of the Venezuelan win, the Dominicans were eliminated, while Puerto Rico qualified for the top-4.
And now it was Puerto Rico that eliminated Venezuela in the Semi-Final.
The last time that a Puerto Rican team won the Serie del Caribe (or Caribbean Series) was in 2000.
American Mitch Lively started for the Venezuelan squad.
The 31-year old righthander pitched six games in Double-A last season in the organization of the Washington Nationals and in the remainder of the season, he pitched in the Mexican League, which has a Triple-A designation.
Earlier in his career, Lively pitched in seven minor league-seasons for the San Francisco Giants.
The American ran into problems quickly, as he saw six of the first eight batters (five of the first six) reach base.
Henry Ramos and Iván DeJesús, Jr. led off the game with singles.
With one out, the first run was scored on a single by Cuban Rusney Castillo, who last year played in nine Major League-games for Boston Red Sox.
In 2015, he was a more regular player for the BoSox, playing in 80 games.
Leading 1-0, the bases got loaded when Ruben Gotay walked.
Gotay played in the Major League in 2004-2008 for three clubs.
Moments later, the second run was scored when next batter Jorge Padilla also walked.
With the bases still loaded, the next run was added on a sacrifice fly by Jesmuel Valentín and a following single by Yadiel Rivera lifted the lead to 4-0.
That all led to an early departure for Lively, who was replaced by former Major Leaguer Wil Ledezma.
He struckout the next batter to end the productive first at bat of Puerto Rico.
Ledezma retired the side in the second (two strikeouts), but then gave up two more Puerto Rican runs in the third.
With two outs, Padilla walked and scored on a double by Valentín.
Hereafter, Rivera added another runscoring single to make it a 6-0 score.
In the fourth, Henry Ramos tripled with one out off of Ledezma, who was then replaced by Romulo Sánchez.
He began with a strikeout, but then gave up a runscoring single to David Vidal.
In the fifth, Puerto Rico lifted the lead to 8-0 on a 2-out single by Jonathan Morales.
Orlando Roman started for Puerto Rico.
He began with two strikeouts in the bottom of the first inning.
He then walked a batter and gave up a single, but the two were left behind.
In the second inning, Roman began with a walk, but followed with three strikeouts.
Trailing 6-0, Venezuela got the bases loaded in the third inning.
With one out, Ronny Cedeño and René Reyes singled.
The bases got loaded when José Pírela also singled with two outs, but a grounder ended the at bat.
In the fourth, Venezuela again stranded two runners, but then scored its first run in the fifth, while trailing 8-0.
With one out, José Castillo singled and José Pírela doubled.
A grounder by Alex Romero then accounted for the run.
In the top of the sixth, Puerto Rico made it a 9-1 score thanks to an one-out homerun by David Vidal (his third of the event).
Puerto Rico was then held scoreless in the remainder of the game, but the lead was enough.
Venezuela scored another run in the bottom of the sixth when Denis Phipps led off with a homerun off of William Oliver.
He took over from starter Orlando Roman, who struckout seven batters in five innings.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Venezuela suddenly came back in the game when it scored four runs with two outs.
William Oliver retired the first two batters, then gave up singles to Ali Castillo and Freddy Galvis.
Ronny Cedeño followed with a 2-run double.
The 34-year old Cedeño played in 875 Major League-games in 2005-2014 for seven teams, including four seasons with Chicago Cubs, with whom he made his debut.
He last played in the Majors in 2014 when he appeared in seven games for Philadelphia Phillies.
With Cedeño on second base, Fernando Cabrera took over the pitching, but he walked René Reyes, then saw the runners advance on a wild pitch.
José Castillo followed with a 2-run single to narrow the deficit to 9-6.
Another pitching change followed.
Ricardo Gómez took over, saw Castillo advanced on a wild pitch, but then retired the next batter to end the inning.
More suspense followed in the bottom of the ninth inning when Venezuela got the bases loaded with no outs off of Ricardo Gómez, but the righthanded Dominican recovered fine.
Alex Romero, Jesús Flores and Denis Phipps all singled to put runners on all bases.
Gómez then struckout the next batter and got a flyout for the second out.
Hereafter, Gómez struckout Ronny Cedeño to end the game.
Puerto Rico had reached the Final!
Venezuela outhit Puerto Rico 16-11.
All nine Venezuelan starters hit at least one basehit.
José Castillo and José Pírela both had three hits.
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Puerto Rico and México in Final Serie del Caribe
CULIACÁN, Sinaloa (México) -
Criollos de Aguas and Águilas de Mexicali, the champions of Puerto Rico and México, will face each other in the all-deciding Final of the 59th edition of the Serie del Caribe, which concludes on Tuesday in the Mexican city of Culiacán.
On Monday (February 6), Puerto Rico won 9-6 against Águilas del Zulia (Venezuela) in the first Semi-Final.
In the evening, México nipped Alazanes de Granma (Cuba) 1-0 in the second Semi-Final to become the second finalist.
Mexican starter Miguel Peña threw five strong innings.
The Texas-born lefthander struckout four batters and gave up only two basehits.
Both hits were registered in the first inning.
In the remainder of the game, Cuba not only was kept hitless, it also was kept off the bases.
From the first inning on, 24 consecutive batters were retired by three pitchers.
Cuba reached base again in the ninth inning.
Lazaro Blanco also did a fine job as starter for the Cuban squad.
The righthander pitched seven innings, struckout five batters, gave up only four hits, but also the lone run in the game.