Puerto Rico leaves Colombia’s Caimanes on the ground

Puerto Rican catcher Jonathan Morales ran his pads full of teammates to facilitate the race that gave Puerto Rico’s Criollos de Caguas a 2-1 victory over Colombia’s Caimanes de Barranquilla to qualify for the Caribbean Series semi-finals Mazatlán 2021.

Puerto Rico improved to 3-1 and is the second team to advance to the next stage. Earlier in the day, the Dominican Republic’s Águilas Cibaeñas claimed the first ticket by beating Venezuela’s Caribes de Anzoátegui 2-0 to remain unbeaten in the tournament (4-0).

Puerto Rico misses a game in the regular phase. That will be played on Thursday at 2 PM (time in Puerto Rico) against the Chiriquí Federals of Panama, who played against the Tomateros de Culiacán of Mexico on Wednesday-afternoon.

In the pitching game, the Colombians used five pitchers to limit the Puerto Ricans to only four basehits. Puerto Rico used the same amount and gave the South Americans three hits. Both teams batted out 10 times.

The decisive series came in the bottom of the ninth, when, after José Miranda led off with a strikeout, Johneshwy Fargas flied out to center, which turned into a double. Vimael Machin, who followed in order, was walked intentionally before Fargas stole third base during the at bat of Reymond Fuentes.

With runners in the corners and one out, the Alligators decided to walk Fuentes intentionally with one out to load the bases and go for a save double play. But pitcher Cody Mincey couldn’t get Morales to hit a ground shot over the infield and eventually walked him that drove Fargas in from third place.

The Alligators were the first to score when they broke the ice in the first half of the second.

After one out, Puerto Rico-starter Tommy Romero Dilson Herrera issued a pass. Then the next batter, Jairo Diaz, doubled to the right to put Herrera on the plate.

In the meantime, Colombian starter Reiver Sanmartín continued to dominate the Puerto Rican offense with ease during the first five innings. In it, the lefthanded gave up only three basehits, one run and struckout eight batters.

The three failed to catch that Sanmartín yielded emerged in the third episode’s loss. Jonathan Morales led off the shootout with a single in the middle in the bottom of the third inning, and after Edwin Diaz struckout, Jarren Duran led Morales to second base with another single.

Henry Ramos hit a short stop and forced Morales to third base, although Durán moved to second base, where he scored on a single by Yadier Molina.