CARACAS ( Associated Press) – Mexico and Colombia advanced to the semifinals of the Caribbean Series after defeating Panama and the Dominican Republic, respectively, on Tuesday’s first-round finals.
Puerto Rico, for its part, boosted its chances of qualifying by coming back and defeating Cuba in a dramatic ninth inning, which was eliminated along with Panama.
Canneros de los Mochis beat Federales de Chiriqui 5–1, Vaqueros de Montería beat Tigres de Licey 11–1, and Indios de Mayagüez beat Agricultural de Bayamo 4–3, having taken an early 3–0 advantage. ruined the
With these results, Mexico established itself as the leader with a 5–1 record, followed by Colombia with a 4–2 record. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico improved its performance to 3–3 and Panama was left with a 2–4 record. At the same time, Cuba is at the last position in the table with six wins in matches.
They later faced Venezuela (3–2) and Curaçao (2–3), which ended the day.
The tournament is played under all-against-all modality over the first seven dates, where the first four qualify for the semi-finals.
The winners of the semi-finals, where the first with fourth in the standings and the second with third, are given the right to play the final on 10 February in the Venezuelan capital.
ceiros 5, federal 1
Irving López – who reached first base on a single and advanced to third base on an error by outfielder Ariel Sandoval – scored the game’s first run on Reynaldo Rodríguez’s sacrifice fly.
The Federals tied the score 1–1 in the fourth on a double by Johnny Santos.
In the fifth inning, José Cardona reached on a single, moved to second on López’s sacrifice bunt, caught third with a steal, and then scored on catcher Iván Herrera’s throwing error.
Starter Braulio Torres-Pérez (1-1) was the winner after giving up five hits and one run over five 2/3 innings. Jake Sanchez (3) made the save. Davis Romero (0-2) pitched the opening and took the loss.
Jeans 11, Tigers 1
Dilson Herrera and Jesús Maríaga combined to put the Vaqueros up 4–0 with a two-run single in the sixth inning.
In the seventh, Andres Angulo drove in three runs with a triple and scored after an error by second baseman Robinson Cano. Mariaga then scored another goal to increase the lead to 9-0.
One inning later, Dayan Frias drove in a run with a single and scored after third baseman Calvin Gutierrez’s throwing error led to Angulo’s drive.
In the ninth, Junior Lake singled in the run that prevented the shutout.
The victory was credited to Eduar López (2–0), a Dominican right-hander who wears the Vaqueros jersey. He was followed by Kevin Escoria and Hugo Beltran in relief. Defeated was Raul Valdez (0-1).
Indian 4, Farmer 3
Los Agriculturales took a 3–0 lead in the second inning on hits by Jordanis Alarcon, Carlos Benitez and Álexquemar Sánchez off starter Daryl Thompson.
The Indians put two away in the fifth quarter with a run-scoring triple by Roberto Enriquez, who promptly scored on a Brian Torres single.
The Puerto Rican ninth did not give up and worked tirelessly to reverse the score, which they achieved in the bottom of the ninth inning with an RBI double from Torres and an RBI hit from Emmanuel Rivera.
Reliever Branden Webb won (1–0) and reliever Andy Vargas lost (1–1).
