(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
     Surprise loss for Curaçao on Day 3 of Caribbean Baseball Cup
Nederlands
 NASSAU (Bahamas) -
On the third day of the fourth edition of the Caribbean Baseball Cup, Curaçao suffered a surprise loss against the US Virgin Islands, 11-10, on Tuesday-evening (December 6).
Curaçao started the event in Nassau on Sunday with a 7-1 win against Puerto Rico, then won 12-10 on Monday against host Bahamas.
Also on Tuesday, Puerto Rico shutout Cuba 6-0.
Curaçao has no games scheduled on Wednesday.
The team closes the preliminary round on Thursday against Cuba.
The Final will be played coming Sunday.
The team of the US Virgin Islands lost its first two games at The Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Complex in Nassau.
On Sunday, the team lost 4-3 against the Bahamas and on Monday, the team was shutout 9-0 by Cuba.
The US Virgin Islands are located south of the British Virgin Islands.
Both island-groups are located east of Puerto Rico.
The US Virgin Islands is listed 66 on the world-ranking list, Curaçao 60.
Two teams will qualify for participation in the Central American and Caribbean Games, which will be held next year (June 23-July 8) in El Salvador.
Cuba already has qualified for the event.
In its third game of the tournament, Curaçao led 3-1 halfway the fourth inning, but the US Virgin Islands then staged a 7-run rally to turn the game around and added two more runs in the fifth at bat.
However, Curaçao was able to come back.
Trailing 10-3 after six innings, the team rallied for six runs in the seventh inning and came alongside in the ninth.
But the opponent then decided the game in the bottom of the ninth.
Curaçao opened the score in the second inning on a single by Raysheandell Michel and added a run in the third on a single by Darren Seferina.
After the Virgin Islands had scored once in the second, Curaçao scored again in the top of the third, this time in a double-steal situation.
...Raywendley Van Gurp hitting for Curaçao during...
...the Baseball Week Haarlem this year...
...Against the US Virgin Islands, Van Gurp had...
...two singles in the 6-run rally in the 7th inning...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the bottom of the fourth, Curaçao-starter Zairich Daal had a runner on second base with one out when he gave up two runscoring singles, which tied the score.
An error and a hit batter then loaded the bases.
Daal was replaced by Johnaikel Acosta, but he walked the next two batters, which brought in two more runs and put the Virgin Islands ahead, 5-3.
This year, Acosta pitched in the Dutch big league for Quick Amersfoort.
Next season, he will play for Amsterdam Pirates.
With the bases still loaded, Je-Andrick Lourens took over the pitching, but also was unable to stop the scoring.
First, he saw a run being scored on a force play-grounder, then two more on a double by Kyle Lamotta, which made it an 8-3 score.
In the fifth inning, two runs were added on a 2-run double by Taj Bates with two outs.
In the top of the seventh, it was Virgin Islands-starter Sergio Santiago, who ran into problems.
He gave up singles to Raydwendley Van Gurp and Rayshelon Carolina, who next year will play in the Dutch big league for Curaçao Neptunus and this season played for Twins Oosterhout.
A run was then scored on a force play-grounder by Sherman Jones.
Hereafter, Curaçao got the bases loaded when Darren Seferina and Dudley Leonora also singled.
When a walk for Kay-Lan Nicasia led to a run, a pitching change followed.
Dwayne Maduro took over and began with a strikeout.
With two outs, four more runs were scored on a single by Raysheandell Michel, a passed ball and a 2-run single by Raywendley Van Gurp.
In the top of the ninth, Curaçao came alongside.
With one out, pinch-runner Risandro Pastor then scored on an error in a double-steal situation.
But in the bottom of the ninth, the Virgin Islands scored the winning run.
Reliever Cerilio Soleana, who had entered the game in the seventh inning, gave up a lead-off double to Kaleeq Brannigan.
Soleana then caught a bunt-attempt and struckout the next batter.
But with two outs, he gave up a walk-off single to Zayd Brannigan.
Curaçao collected 12 basehits, including three by Raysheandell Michel.
Darren Seferina and Raywendley Van Gurp both had two hits.
Michel and Van Gurp both batted in two runs.
(December 7)
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