Panamá Metro, which won its first game against México (3-1), then lost on Friday vs. Colombia (2-1), opened the score on Saturday-afternoon against Tigres in the top of the second inning.
Tigres-starter Marco Frías had retired the side in the first inning, but then encountered a productive Panamá in the second at bat.
With one out, Anthony Amaya doubled and scored when Luis Barahona followed with a single.
The inning ended when short stop Jesús López made a nice play on a hard grounder by Nelson Robledo and turned an inning-ending double play.
Tigres got its first baserunner in the bottom of the first inning off of Panamanian starter Héctor Salazar.
With two outs, the righthander walked Edgard Montiel, but he was forced out on a following grounder by Curt Smith.
In the second inning, Osman Marval doubled for Tigres after lead-off hitter Yurendell de Caster had grounded out.
Hereafter, Dashenko Ricardo struckout and a grounder ended the at bat.
The Nicaraguan champion then came alongside in the bottom of the third inning.
With one out, Everth Cabrera walked and stole second base.
In 2009-2015, the 30-year old second baseman played in the Major League for San Diego Padres and Baltimore Orioles.
In 510 games, Cabrera collected 450 basehits, including twelve homeruns.
A grounder by Darrel Campbell brought Cabrera to third base and he then was awarded home plate on a balk by pitcher Héctor Salazar and with that, he scored the tying run.
Hereafter, it took until the sixth inning for the next runner to get into scoring position.
In the top of the fourth, Panamá got a runner with two outs, but hereafter, seven batters were retired in order.
Nicaragua got a runner with one out in the fifth, but he was forced out, then another runner stranded on first base.
In the bottom of the sixth, with two outs, Yurendell de Caster walked and got into scoring position after a wild pitch.
To create a force play, next batter Osman Marval was walked intentionally.
Hereafter, pitcher Héctor Salazar got the bases loaded when he issued a 'normal' walk to Dashenko Ricardo, which led to a change.
Alberto Baldonado took over and Tigres left the bases loaded when Jesús López fouled out.
After Tigres failed to score in the sixth inning, Panamá Metro took the lead in the top of the seventh.
With one out, José Camarena homered to make it 2-1 in favor of the Panamanian champion.
Hereafter, a walk followed for Anthony Amaya and that also resulted in a pitching change for Tigres, as starter Marcos Frías was relieved by Jorge Bucardo.
He gave up a single to Luis Barahona, but a double play then ended the at bat.
...Yurendell de Caster singled and scored...
...in the 4-run 8th inning for Tigres...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
An exciting eighth inning then followed with both teams scoring several runs.
In the top of the eighth, Panamá rallied for four runs to increase its lead to 6-1.
In the bottom of the eighth, Nicaragua answered by also scoring four runs to narrow the deficit to 6-5.
With one out in the top of the eighth, Panamá got the bases loaded when pinch-hitter Xavier Tapia, Rodrigo Orozco and Eduardo Tomás (infield-hit) all singled.
Hereafter, Concepción Rodríguez hit a 2-run single, which was followed by an outfield-error, resulting in runners on second and third base.
To set up a force play, José Camarena was walked intentionally to load the bases.
Wilber Bucardo then took over the pitching from his brother Jorge Bucardo.
However, he gave up a sacrifice fly to Anthony Amaya, then an RBI-double to Luis Barahona that brought in two more runs and lifted the lead to 6-1.
A flyout ended the at bat, but Panamá had a comfortable lead.
So, it seams.
Tigres registered only three basehits in the first seven innings, but then suddenly rallied for four runs in the bottom of the eighth to make it a 6-5 score.
Just as the Panamanians, Tigres got the bases loaded quickly.
Edgard Montiel led off with a walk, then Curt Smith and Yurendell de Caster both singled.
With the bases loaded, Héctor Corpas became the new Panamanian pitcher, but he was greeted with a 2-run double by Osman Marval.
Corpas then uncorked a wild pitch that enabled De Caster to score the next run.
With Marval on third base, Dashenko Ricardo struckout, but the runner then scored on a grounder by pinch-hitter Jimmy González to make it a 6-5 score.
With two outs, pinch-hitter Jilton Calderón singled and that brought in another new pitcher, Jean Corpas.
The inning ended when Everth Cabrera lined out.
In the top of the ninth, Panamá added an insurance run.
With two outs, Rodrigo Orozco doubled.
He then advanced on an infield-hit by Eduardo Thomás, which was followed by a throwing error and that enabled Orozco to score and lift the lead to 7-5.
Tigres was retired in order in the bottom of the ninth by Jean Corpas, who closed with two strikeouts.
With the win, Panamá and Nicaragua would have been the two finalists when the Team Quality Balance would have been used in case of a tie of three teams.
This tie was created when host Colombia won 9-0 in the evening against winless México.
However, the TQB is not used in this tournament and, according to the rules, the organizing country qualifies for the Final when it is one of the three teams that are tied for first place.
The second finalist is then decided by draw.
In the evening, Leones Comfacor de Montería shutout Chileros de Xalapa 9-0.
The Colombians rallied for six runs in the first inning, then added three more in the fourth at bat.
Leones collected 10 basehits, including two by Eudy Piña and Carlos Willougby.
Manuel Boscán batted in three runs, while Sneider Batista closed the 6-run rally with a 2-run homerun.
Venezuelan Wilfredo Ramírez started for Leones and gave up four hits in seven innings.
Xalapa recorded only five basehits in the game.
Before this tournament, Xalapa had played only 14 games, the last on January 21.
Chileros de Xalapa has won the Championship-title in the Liga de Béisbol Estatal de Veracruz to earn to right to represent México in this event.
The semi-professional league held its first season in the months of December and January and is comprised of six teams coming from the Mexican State Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave.
The league replaced the Liga Invernal Veracruzana de Béisbol Profesional, which had no season this past winter.
In the previous four Series Latinoamericana, the champions of this league participated.
In the new league, games are only played on Saturday and Sunday.
It opened on December 10 and in five weeks, all teams met each other twice, playing a total of only ten games.
After the regular season ended on January 11, the four best teams qualified for the best-of-three Play-Offs (1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3).
Chileros swept Tobis de Acayucan 2-0 to reach the best-of-three Final.
The team then became the first champion of this new league after sweeping Petroleros de Minatitlán.
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Loss Tigres, but reaches Final Serie Latinoamericana by draw
MONTERÍA, Córdoba (Colombia) -
Tigres de Chinandega, the champion of Nicaragua, was left empty-handed on Saturday-afternoon (January 28) in its final game of the round robin on Day 3 of the fifth edition of the Serie Latinoamericana in Montería (Colombia).
Tigres opened the event on Thursday with a 5-2 victory against host Leones Comfacor de Montería, then registered a convincing 7-2 win on Friday against Mexican champion Chileros de Xalapa.
But on Saturday, the team lost 7-5 to Panamá Metro.
The team of Netherlands Team-players Yurendell de Caster, Dashenko Ricardo and Curt Smith trailed 6-1 in the eighth inning, then narrowed the deficit to 6-5, but in the end lost 7-5.
Despite the loss, Tigres still reached the Final, which will be played on Sunday.
With the win, Panamá also was in a position to play in the Final.
In the last round robin-game, Colombia met México on Saturday-evening, won 9-0 and with that created a 3-way tie.