(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
    Dutch players open Nicaraguan baseball Final with win
Nederlands
 CHINANDEGA (Nicaragua) -
Tigres de Chinandega won 9-6 vs. Gigantes de Rivas on Friday-evening (January 13) in the opener of the best-of-seven Championship Final of the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Nacional.
All three Netherlands National Team-players were in the starting line-up of the Tigres.
Curt Smith batted fourth and was the rightfielder, Yurendell de Caster batted fifth and was the designated hitter and Dashenko Ricardo was the catcher and batted eighth.
Last year, De Caster won the Nicaraguan title with Gigantes.
Tigres opened the score in the bottom of the first inning off of starter José Rosario when Everth Cabrera homered with one out.
Hereafter, Edgard Montiel doubled, but then Curt Smith struckout and Yurendell de Caster grounded out to end the inning.
In the second inning, Dashenko Ricardo singled with two outs, but he was left behind.
In the bottom of the third inning, Tigres doubled its lead when Edgard Montiel homered with two outs.
In the top of the fourth inning, it was Gigantes that struck and also used the long ball.
Darrel Campbell led off with an infield-hit and hereafter, Wuillians Vásquez homered to make it a 2-2 tie.
With one out, Donell Linares also homered off of starter Marcos Frías, giving Gigantes a 3-2 lead.
The lead was shortlived, as Tigres answered with a 4-run rally in its fourth at bat.
De Caster led off, but flied out, then Osman Marval singled.
Next batter Jimmy González then reached on an infield-hit, but a throwing error followed that enabled Marval to score the tying run.
The error brought González to third base.
Hereafter, Ricardo struckout, but Tigres then took a 4-3 lead on a single by Jesús López.
Ismael Munguía followed with a homerun into deep rightfield to lift the lead to 6-3.
It also marked the end for Gigantes-starter José Rosario.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Tigres took more distance by adding two runs.
Everth Cabrera and Edgard Montiel led off with singles, which led to a pitching change.
José L. Sáenz took over, but was greeted with a single by Curt Smith that loaded the bases.
Yurendell de Caster followed with an infield-hit that brought in Cabrera and kept the bases loaded.
With one out, the next run was scored on a force play-grounder by Jimmy González.
In the top of the eighth inning, Gigantes was able to do something back again.
Samuel Gervacio started the inning in relief for Tigres and got two quick outs.
He then walked Reginal Abercrombie and hereafter Donell Linares connected for his second homerun of the evening to make it an 8-5 score.
Tigres immediately reacted by scoring a run of its own in the bottom of the eighth.
With one out, Ismael Munguía reached on an infield-hit, stole second base and scored on an 2-out single by Edgard Montiel.
The scoring wasn't over yet.
With two outs in the top of the ninth, off of reliever Wilber Bucardo, pinch-hitter Dwight Britton and Mark Joseph both singled.
Gigantes then scored another run in a single by Darrel Campbell.
With runners at the corners, Wuillians Vásquez was the next hitter.
Vásquez led the league in homeruns and RBI's and already had homered tonight.
This time, he hit a force play-grounder that ended the game.
(January 13)
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