The Criollos survive and finish in second place

After starting pitching failed early in the game, Caguas Criollos’ offense took a step forward and produced nine runs in five innings, leading to a 9-8 victory over the Chiriquí Federales de Panamá on the final day of the regular phase of the competition. Caribbean Series Mazatlán 2021.

With the victory, in the match held in the first round of the day, the Criollos of Puerto Rico secured second place in the standings, which would give them the guarantee to face the team in third position. finished. The Águilas Cibaeñas of the Dominican Republic had secured the first position 4-0.

Puerto Rico’s rival would be determined with the games that followed the day between Colombia and the Dominican Republic and Venezuela and Mexico, and there was the possibility that there would be a three-way tie in the battle for third and fourth place.

Depending on the format of the tournament, they face the first and fourth in a semi-final and the second and third in the other. Those semi-finals will be played on Friday and the winners will go to the final on Saturday.

Puerto Rican righthanded Jason Garcia had to forget about an outing by giving up five hits and two walks in the top of the first inning, giving the Feds a powerful start with a 5-0 lead before closing their first chance . . Garcia completed only two-thirds of the inning.

Veteran righthanded Iván Maldonado came to the aid of Garcia to end the first inning and was able to throw three more innings, while the Puerto Rican bats were starting to ring from the bottom of the same first inning.

Jarren Durán hit a homerun in the bottom of the first to put Puerto Rico on the scoreboard and trigger the Puerto Rican offense. After that hit, which made it 5-1, the Criollos scored in each inning until the fifth.

In the second, Jeremy Rivera hit the infield and drove in to leave the scoreboard 5-2 and in the third, the Puerto Ricans leveled the score with four consecutive hits by Henry Ramos, Yadier Molina, Vimael Machín and Emmanuel Rivera, one free run. Reymond Fuentes and a sacrifice fly by Jonathan Morales.

The lead came in the fourth with a walk to Duran, who moved to second base with uncontrolled pitching. Ramos walked and both advanced with another wild pitch, enabling Machín to hit a sacrifice fly that forced Duran in and put the game 6-5 down.

However, Chiriquí reacted in the top of the fifth with a hit by David Rodríguez and a passed ball by Juan Centeno that put a man in the middle. A hit and pitch followed the order, and Rodriguez scored with a hit over the infield to bring the score to 6-6.

The Puerto Ricans responded immediately, scraping the three races that gave them final lead. Morales led off with a single to the left and was batted in by Centeno for a 7-6 lead. Duran singled to the center, leaving two criollos in circulation before Henry Ramos both drove in with a single to the center.

The Feds scored twice in the eighth and added drama to the game by ending in 9-8. But with the bases loaded and one out, reliever Fernando Cruz retired the last two to end the game.