(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
    Gigantes avoids sweep by winning third game in Nicaraguan Final
Nederlands
 CHINANDEGA (Nicaragua) -
Reigning champion Gigantes de Rivas avoided a sweep by winning 6-5 vs. Tigres de Chinandega in Game 3 of the best-of-seven Championship Final of the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Nacional on Sunday-afternoon/evening (January 15) at Estadio Efraín Tijerino, the home of the Tigres in Chinandega.
Tigres had won the first two games, winning 9-6 in Friday and 6-5 in Saturday.
The Championship Series for the Nicaraguan titles continues on Tuesday-evening in Rivas.
After both teams were retired in order in the first inning, the scoring began in the second at bat on a sunny afternoon (31 degrees Celsius, 87 Fahrenheit) Chinandega.
The visiting Gigantes scored twice in both the second and third inning.
In the second inning, Donell Linares and Reginald Abercrombie led off with singles for Gigantes.
Elmer Reyes followed with a double that produced the first run.
With runners on second and third base, Tigres-starter Raúl Ruiz struckout the next batter, then a line drive was caught thereafter.
But Luis Allen then reached on an infield-hit and that enabled Abercrombie to score the second run for Gigantes.
After Tigres was retired again in the bottom of the second inning, Gigantes added two more runs in the third.
With one out, Wuillians Vásquez singled, then scored when Donell Linares followed with a homerun, which doubled the lead to 4-0.
The lead of Gigantes was erased in the bottom of the third inning.
Starting pitcher Robinson López had retired the first six batters in a row, but in the third, Tigres struck with a 4-run rally to come alongside.
With one out, it was Dashenko Ricardo, who started the rally with a homerun into deep leftfield.
Hereafter, Jesús López hit a comeback-grounder back to López for an apparent routine out.
However, the righthander threw the ball past his first baseman into foul territory, which enabled the batter to advance to third base.
A flyout then accounted for the second out, but moments later López scored on a single by Everth Cabrera.
A double by Edgard Montiel and single by Curt Smith brought in two more runs and made it a 4-4 score.
...Dashenko Ricardo...
...homerun...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the bottom of the fourth, Tigres got an opportunity to take the lead.
Osman Marval led off with a double off of lefthander Robinson López, who then was relieved by Fidencio Flores.
He walked Jimmy González, but also saw Marval move to third base when ball-four ended in a wild pitch.
With runners at the corners, Flores struckout Dashenko Ricardo.
A grounder towards first base by Jesús López then resulted in an out at the plate and a following grounder ended the bat.
Gigantes re-took the lead in the top of the sixth inning.
With one out, Anderson Feliz singled and scored all the way from first base on a double into centerfield by next batter Ofilio Castro.
A pitching change followed and José D. Rugama took over.
Castro was then eliminated trying to advance to third base on a grounder to short by Luis Allen and Rugama closed with a strikeout.
But Gigantes led 5-4.
Gigantes added another run in the top of the eighth inning when Anderson Feliz homered into deep centerfield with one out.
In the bottom of the eighth, Tigres got its first two batters on base off of new pitcher Jonathan Aristill.
The righthanded reliever, who had been a workhorse for Gigantes in both the Play-Offs and the Final, walked Curt Smith and Yurendell de Caster to put two Dutch Netherlands Team-players on the bases.
De Caster was then replaced by pinch-runner Norlando Valle.
He and Smith advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Osman Marval.
That brought powerhitter Jimmy González in the batter's box.
With first base open, it was not opted to walk González intentionally and that led to a run.
González connected for a sacrifice fly that brought in Smith and narrowed the deficit to 6-5.
Valle stranded at second base, as Aristill closed the inning by striking out Dashenko Ricardo.
With a 6-5 lead, Carlos Teller entered the game for Gigantes in the bottom of the ninth inning as closer.
The lefthander walked lead-off hitter Jesús López, who then got into scoring position via a sacrifice bunt by Ismael Munguía.
But hereafter, Teller struckout both Everth Cabrera and Edgard Montiel to close the game and earn a save.
(January 15)
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