myworldofbaseball

The round robin has identified the final four to play for the Series del Caribe championship. They will compete in a single elimination tournament. Colombia and Venezuela have been eliminated. The number one seed and undefeated Dominican Republic will go against the number four seed Panama. Puerto Rico will play against Mexico.

Puerto Rico 9 Panama 8

Panama came out charging scoring five runs in the top of the first off Jason Garcia, who could only retire two batters. He gave up five hits and walked two. Jarren Duran opened the bottom of the first with a homerun and the Puerto Ricans came climbing back. Henry Ramos and Vimael Machin each drove in two runs. Panama starter Harold Arauz could not get past the third. By the time he left the showers the Puerto Ricans had tied the score 5-5. They jumped out to a 9-6 lead going into the ninth. Panama strung together four hits and two runs off Joshua Torres. Puerto Rico had to call on Fernando Cruz to retire the final two hitters to survive the win. Panama had the tying run on third and the go ahead run on first with one out but a pop up and strike out failed to bring the runner home.

Dominican Republic 3 Colombia 2

Colombia has yet to win a Series del Caribe game in their two years of play. They almost pulled off a surprise by beating the undefeated Dominican Republic. Granted, the Dominicans had nothing to play for, already clinching their first seed ranking.

Colombia was up 2-0 for five innings. Edison Frias had shut out the Dominican bats for those first five innings. The Colombians decided to go to their bullpen and that is when the bats started making noise. Johan Camargo had an RBI single in the sixth. Melky Cabrera doubled in the seventh to tie the game. The ninth inning saw a lead off walk eventually score on a walk off single by Rangel Ravelo to keep the Dominicans undefeated.

Yunesky Maya did not get the win but went six innings for the Dominicans. He gave up two runs. Lisalverto Bonilla pitched the last three innings to earn the win. He walked one and kept Panama hitless.

Mexico 4 Venezuela 3

A loss by Mexico would have created a three way tie for the last two spots, resulting in a tie breaker. After going down 3-0 early Mexico came back to win the game 4-3. It took a three run eighth inning rally to tie the game, Sebastion Elizalde driving in one run with a double and Joey Meneses following with a two run double.

In the ninth inning Isaac Paredes led the inning off with a triple but failed to score. In the bottom of the tenth they loaded the bases with no one out and the next two batters were retired without bringing the runners home. With two outs Carlos Gamboa came up. The Venezuelans had decided to intentionally walk him after the Paredes lead off triple in the ninth. There was no place to put him for this at bat. He drove a 1-1 count into centerfield for a walk off single to put Mexico in the playoffs.

For Venezuela it was again going to the bullpen that lost the game. Logan Darnell had pitched seven shutout innings. The Venezuelan bullpen then squandered the lead, something myworld noticed far too often in this Series del Caribe.

It appears the games played by Mexico are started so late that they do not get reported. Below are a summary of the games played by Mexico.

Mexico 10 Colombia 2

A nice easy opener for Mexico. A six run fifth erased an early 2-1 Colombia lead and put the fans at ease. Jessie Castillo drove in four runs, three of them on a homerun in the ninth inning that closed out the scoring for Mexico. Manuel Barreda went six innings for Mexico to get the win. Joey Meneses drove in the first two runs in the six run fifth to give Mexico a 3-2 lead. Colombia gifted Mexico the runs with five walks, including four in a row that forced in two runs and a hit by pitch. For the game Colombia pitchers walked 10 batters.

Dominican Republic 4 Mexico 2

Mexico went from facing the easiest opponent to the favored. They came out on the losing end this time. Juan Lagares continued his hot hitting, going deep for the second time in the series with a solo shot in the seventh to lead the Dominicans. Cesar Valdez threw six innings of two hit shut out ball for the Dominicans. Mexico rallied for two in the ninth off Fernando Abad, the runs being unearned courtesy of an error by Robinson Cano. With the go ahead run at the plate Jhan Marinez came on to get the last out to pick up the save.

A group of Panama All Stars showed Venezuela how the game is played and the favorite Dominican Republic proved their stuff in the win over Puerto Rico in the Series del Caribe openers. Below is a summary of the games.

Panama 6 Venezuela 3

Panama erupted for four runs in the sixth to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 lead. Hector Gomez started the inning with a double. Carlos Quiroz singled him home and the game was tied. A Jonathan Arauz single gave Panama the lead and resulted in the departure of Mayckol Guaipe for Andres Perez. Perez could not stop the bleeding, giving up a double to Jesus Lopez to score another run and a Willy Garcia single to cap the four run nightmare.

Austin Warner and Severino Gonzales closed out the last three innings for Panama. Venezuela did put two runners on in the seventh and eighth innings but failed to score. Warner got credit for the win after getting the last out in the fifth. Gonzalez picked up the save.

The two teams combined for 26 hits. Allan Cordoba was the ring leader for Panama with three hits. Venezuela received three hits from Herlis Rodriguez. One of Rodriguez hits was a solo shot in the fifth that gave Venezuela the lead. Jesus Sucre also hit a solo homer for Venezuela in the third.

Dominican Republic 5 Puerto Rico 1

Carlos Martinez allowed Puerto Rico to score in the opening frame, but shut them out into the sixth to give the Dominicans the opening day victory. Top Yankee prospect Luis Medina could not complete four innings before giving up five runs.

Juan Lagares had the big hit with a three run homer in the third. He drove in all five runs for the Dominicans by adding a two run single in the fourth. Lagares is known more for his defense, but he has shown an ability to swing the bat in these Winter League playoffs.

The Series del Caribe is scheduled for January 31 and will run until February 6 in Mazatlan, Mexico. Six teams are being planned for the tournament, but that all depends on if each of the winter leagues can get their season started. The traditional four of Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Mexico will be playing along with Colombia and Panama.

The Dominican Republic just began their winter league last Sunday. Mexico had to postpone their season for eleven days because of corona virus concerns but hopes to resume their season soon. Venezuela and Puerto Rico plan to bein their season December 1. Last year Cuba did not participate because of their inability to obtain a visa. When it was announced that Cuba would not participate in the 2021 Series del Caribe, Colombia will have a second opportunity to participate.

It is possible if one of the winter leagues can not complete their season Nicaragua could become the sixth team. They have already started their winter league.

The Therwil Flyers swept the Bern Cardinals in a best of five series to become the baseball champions of Switzerland. Only the third game was competitive, with the Flyers winning the first two 16-8 and 16-3.

The third game the Flyers rallied for four runs in the eighth to turn a 5-2 deficit into a 6-5 lead. Michael Kratz got the big hit with a two run double. Takanobu Oshima got the win with 2.1 innings of scoreless relief.

These two teams had tied for first place during the regular season with 15-5 records.

The Little League World Series began in 1947. They have played every year since then. Except now in 2020 there will be no Little League World Series. For the first time in its history the corona virus has forced its cancellation.

With the corona virus Little Leagues in general have not been operating. It is unclear when they will be able to start this year. Also, international travel restrictions make it difficult to run qualifying tournaments.

ESPN will have to find more opportunities to handle their dead time.

Haarlem is a pretty cool city to watch baseball. You have the downtown area with a number of nice eating establishments and a little out in the suburbs you have the ball park where the Honkball tournament is held. It is also held in late June/early July where the sun stays out until 10 PM, or so it seemed. Loved the fact that bicycles seemed to outnumber automobiles as the mode of transportation.

Honkball has announced five of their teams for their tournament for June 26 to July 5 at the Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem. Netherlands, Cuba, Germany, Japan and Taiwan are the teams that have been added to the tournament. They are looking at adding a sixth team from the United States, but Curacao is an easy alternative if they cannot attract a team from the United States.

The Netherlands is normally their national team. You may recognize some ex-major or minor leaguers from their rosters. Roger Bernadina is a name some may recognize. Japan and Taiwan are teams whose rosters are filled with players from industrial leagues or colleges. Japan is the defending champions and Taiwan has won the tournament in the past. Cuba will probably be a mixture of veterans and youngsters depending on where Cuba wants to go. Germany will probably be a team composed of their national team players that could include Donald Lutz.

So enjoy the tulips, windmills and baseball in Haarlem. It will be a week difficult to beat for a vacation.

The Philippines was only challenged in their opening game by Thailand 3-2. After that they won their next three games by 12 or more. They got an opportunity to play Thailand again for the gold. This time the game was not close with the Philippines winning 15-2. Thailand scored both their runs in the fourth inning, but by then they were down 10-0.

Thailand got into the gold medal round by defeating Indonesia 6-4. Thailand scored a run in the fourth inning to break a 3-3 tie and were never behind in the game after that.

Singapore got into the bronze medal game by defeating Cambodia 9-1. It was the first game their pitching staff had held a team to less than 10 runs, but the Cambodian offense had been able to generate only one run in their first three games. In the bronze medal game Indonesia was able to establish an offense and beat Singapore 10-4.

The Philippines was only challenged in their opening game by Thailand 3-2. After that they won their next three games by 12 or more. They got an opportunity to play Thailand again for the gold. This time the game was not close with the Philippines winning 15-2. Thailand scored both their runs in the fourth inning, but by then they were down 10-0.

Thailand got into the gold medal round by defeating Indonesia 6-4. Thailand scored a run in the fourth inning to break a 3-3 tie and were never behind in the game after that.

Singapore got into the bronze medal game by defeating Cambodia 9-1. It was the first game their pitching staff had held a team to less than 10 runs, but the Cambodian offense had been able to generate only one run in their first three games. In the bronze medal game Indonesia was able to establish an offense and beat Singapore 10-4.

Five teams are competing in baseball in the Southeast Asian games. None of them are Korea, Taiwan or Japan. So that gives the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia an opportunity to prove themselves in the sport of baseball.

The two top teams appear to be the Philippines and Thailand. In the opening day match the Philippines just edged Thailand 3-2. They have remained undefeated in these events defeating Cambodia 12-0, Singapore 17-0 and Indonesia 14-1.

After losing to Philippines Thailand defeated Singapore 12-7 and Cambodia 14-1. The big match is when they play Indonesia on Saturday to determine who will play the Philippines in the gold medal rounds.

Indonesia had gone undefeated in their first two games beating Singapore 14-7 and Cambodia 8-1. They got crushed when they played the Philippines 14-1, falling behind early 6-0 after two innings.

Singapore and Cambodia are winless but will play Saturday for fourth place. The winner of this game will then play the loser of the Thailand/Indonesia game for third place. Singapore appears to have some offense, but their pitching has failed to keep a team from scoring double digits in runs. Cambodia has scored only one run in three games.

There are no boxscores for this event so it is difficult to follow the details. You can go to 2019seagames.com to follow the results.