(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
        WildCats Curaçao nips Mexico in second game Caribbean Series
Nederlands
  CARACAS / MACUTO, La Guaira State (Venezuela) -
On Friday (February 3), Day Two of the 65th edition of the annual Serie del Caribe (Caribbean Baseball Series), the four teams that had opened the event on Thursday with a win, all were left empty-handed.
In other words, the four teams that suffered a loss on the opening-day, now all won on the second day.
The result of this is an 8-way tie!
WildCats KJ74, the champion of Curaçao, opened the event on Thursday with a 3-1 loss in ten innings against Agricultores, the representative of Cuba.
On Friday, the Curaçao-team nipped Cañeros de Los Mochis, the champion of the professional Mexican Pacific League, with a 2-1 score.
Day Two began with a 6-5 win for Federales de Chiriquí (Panama) against Vaqueros de Montería (Colombia).
Later in the afternoon, Tigres del Licey (Dominican Republic) won 3-1 against the Cuban squad that is composed of players from Las Tunas and champion Granma.
In the evening, Indios de Mayagüez (Puerto Rico) outscored host Leones del Caracas, 6-1.
Curaçao faced the Mexicans in the new Estadio Monumental de Caracas Simón Bolívar (or Estadio de Béisbol de La Rinconada) in Venezuelan capital Caracas.
The stadium has a capacity of 40,000 spectators and is the second largest baseball-stadium in Latin America, behind the immense Estadio Latinoamericano in Cuban capital Havana.
The stadium in Caracas was opened just before the start of the Caribbean Baseball Series.
Curaçao opened the score in the top of the third inning off of Mexican starter Matt Pobereyko.
The 31-year old righthander plays professionally since 2016 and has played several seasons in the Minor Leagues in the organizations of Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Mets and Miami Marlins.
The American-born Pobereyko also played in Independent Leagues and in the Dominican Republic.
Since the Winter Season of 2021-2022, he pitches in the Mexican Pacific League.
Curaçao was retired in order in the first inning and got two quick outs in the second at bat.
Sharlon Schoop then walked, but was eliminated at third base trying to advance on a following single by Sicnarf Loopstok.
Curaçao was more successful in the third inning.
With two outs, Roger Bernadina and Ray-Patrick Didder hit back-to-back doubles, which produced the first run.
After being retired in order again in the fourth, Curaçao doubled its lead in the fifth at bat.
Again with two outs.
This time, Edmond Americaan singled and moved into scoring position via a wild pitch.
He then scored when Roger Bernadina followed with a single.
34-year old, Venezuelan-born, Néstor Molina started for Curaçao.
The righthander plays in the Venezuelan Professional League since 2010, but also has played in the Minors in 2007-2014 in the organizations of Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox, reaching Triple-A in 2012.
In 2016, Molina played in four Double-A games for San Francisco Giants.
Molina struckout four batters and gave up three basehits, but one of them was a homerun.
...Roger Bernadina was 3-for-4, scored once and had one RBI...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Trailing 1-0, Mexico got a scoring opportunity with two outs in the bottom of the third inning.
José Heberto Felix led off with a double and was at third base with two outs, when Justin Emmanuel Dean and Roberto Valenzuela both walked.
A grounder ended the at bat.
In the fourth inning, Mexico had runners at first and second base with one out, but this time, a double play ending this scoring chance.
Now with a 2-0 lead, Curaçao also stranded a runner in scoring position in the top of the sixth.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Mexico cut the deficit in half when Joey Terdoslavich homered with two outs.
The 34-year old, American-born Terdoslavich played 92 games in the Major League for Atlanta Braves in 2013-2015.
After the homerun, Kevin Kelly took over the pitching for Curaçao and got an inning-ending flyout.
In the seventh inning, both teams again got runners in scoring position, but failed to add runs.
For Curaçao, Andrelton Simmons singled with one out and moved to third base on a 2-out single by Roger Bernadina.
But the inning ended when Bernadina was caught stealing at second base.
For Mexico, Irving Lopez singled with one out off of Kevin Kelly, who was then relieved by Edgar Ernesto Garcia.
With one out, Lopez stole second base, but a strikeout ended the at bat.
In the top of the eighth, Curaçao got one more scoring opportunity.
With two outs, Wladimir Balentien doubled, but he stranded on second base, as pinch-hitter Dudley Leonora struckout.
The Curaçao-defense turned a double play in the bottom of the eighth inning, then Mexico was retired in order in the ninth by closer Wendell Floranus.
Curaçao collected eleven basehits, including three by Roger Bernadina and two by both Wladimir Balentien and Andrelton Simmons.
Mexico was limited to only four basehits.
On Saturday, Curaçao plays its next game against the champion from Panama.
(February 4)
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