(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Tenerife unbeaten in openers Spanish baseball-season
Nederlands
     PUERTO DE LA CRUZ, Tenerife, Canary Islands / BILBAO / BARCELONA / VALENCIA / GAVÁ (Spain) -
The new season in the Spanish Baseball League opened on Saturday, March 26 and Tenerife Marlins is the lone club that is unbeaten after the second round of games was played this weekend (April 2-3).
So far, Tenerife has won three games to lead Group A.
Astros Valencia and Viladecans also won three games, but they also lost once.
The two teams share first place in Group B.
Last year, Tenerife Marlins captured the Spanish title by winning the best-of-five Spanish Series 3-2 against Astros Valencia.
On March 26, Tenerife Marlins opened the season at home in Puerto de La Cruz with a double-header against Antorcha Valencia.
On the island of Tenerife in Puerto de La Cruz, Marlins recorded two convincing, mercy-rule victories at Campo Municipal de Béisbol Néstor Pérez Suárez.
In the first game, Tenerife won with a 13-2 score.
In the second game, Tenerife was the visiting team and won 14-5.
In the opener, starter Carlos Sierra dominated on the mound for Tenerife and struckout 13 batters in the six innings he threw.
His teammates produced 14 basehits off of two pitchers, including homeruns by Richard Montiel and Joel Borges.
Opponent Antorcha collected six basehits, but one of them also was a homerun, hit by Alex Alfonso, who also doubled.
In the second game, Marlins briefly trailed 1-0 after the first inning, but then rallied for three runs in the second and fourth at bat.
Antorcha came back and narrowed the deficit to 6-4, but from the fifth inning on, the team from Tenerife added eight more runs to again win in seven innings.
In this game, Marlins collected twelve basehits, including four homeruns.
Eduardo Moreno and Joel Borges were both 3-for-4 with a homerun.
Moredo batted in three runs, Borges had four RBI's and scored three runs.
Ian Peres and Wander Encarnación also homered, while Alex Alfonso homered again for Antorcha.
Veteran Leslie Nácar started for Tenerife and threw five innings to become the wining pitcher.
Antorcha used three pitchers, including Konsta Kurikka from Finland.
...Félix Cano as coach of...
...the Spanish National...
...Team in 2016...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Last Saturday, the Marlins-team traveled to Bilbao for the double-header against San Inazio Bilbao Bizkaia.
There, the team almost ended up empty-handed in the long first game, which lasted four hours and ten minutes.
After having scored six runs in the top of the first inning, the team from Bilbao scored three runs in its first at bat.
Tenerife then added four more runs in the fourth to take a comfortable 10-3 lead.
However, Bilbao rallied for seven runs in the bottom of the seventh to come alongside.
Tenerife then score the deciding run in the top of the ninth inning on a 2-out double by Eduardo Moredo.
The second game was suspended in the seventh inning due to weather and field conditions with a 4-4 tie.
In Group B, Astros Valencia opened at home on March 26 with a double-header against Toros Pamplona and won 8-1 and 11-0.
In the first game, Ricardo Hernández Sánchez was the winning pitcher and struckout seven batters.
In 2014 and 2015, the 34-year old, Venezuelan-born lefthander played in the Dutch big league for Hoofddorp Pioniers.
Veteran catcher Blake Ochoa batted in two runs for Astros, as did short stop Edison Valerio.
In the second game, three pitchers gave up only five basehits.
This time, Ochoa was 2-for-2 with a homerun.
Valerio also homered for the team from Valencia.
Viladecans didn't have to travel far for their first two games in the Opening Weekend, as it played against Barcelona.
Viladecans won twice at Camp Municipal de Béisbol Carlos Pérez de Rozas at the Montjuďc hill in Barcelona, which was one of the sites of the 2007 European Baseball Championship, which also served as Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
In the first game, Viladecans recorded a huge 22-1 win in a 5-inning game.
After the first inning, Viladecans trailed 1-0.
That was to be the lone run scored by Barcelona, while Viladecans respectively scored six, seven, one and eight runs in the next four at bats.
First baseman Miguel Catalán hit three doubles and batted in seven runs.
The next day, Viladecans won 9-2 in a 7-inning game.
This time, the team scored all its runs from the fourth inning on.
Viladecans is led by Head Coach Félix Cano, who has become a legend over the years due to his long history in Spanish baseball.
Last Saturday, Viladecans and Astros faced each other in Gavá and split their double-header.
The home-playing Viladecans won the first game with a 3-1 score, then Astros won the next game, 6-3.
In the first game, Jorge Balboa went the distance for Viladecans and struckout nine batters in nine innings.
(April 2-3)
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