Vaqueros de Montería from Colombia finished fourth in the 2023 Caribbean Series, while the Tigres de Licey from the Dominican Republic won the title of this competition.
By: Hernan Galindo
Photo: Vaqueros de Montería
The ‘Coffee’ team struggled, but in the end it was not enough to get on the podium
Cañeros de los Mochis de México defeated the national team 1×0, with Jeff Kinley and Joey Terdolavich as the main protagonists.
Kinley pitched six innings as a starter en route to the shutout, plus he allowed four hits and then struck out an opponent to clinch the win for his squad.
César Vargas and the closer Jake Sánchez, who reached four saves in the tournament, were also decisive for the Cañeros.
In this way, Colombia, representing the Vaqueros de Montería, finished fourth in the Caribbean Series, being left out of the podium of this edition.
Dominican Republic the champion
The Tigres del Licey recovered this Friday the supremacy of the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Series by defeating the hosts Leones del Caracas, from Venezuela, 3-0 in the final, and winning the twenty-second Dominican championship in 65 editions of the tournament.
Right-handed pitcher César Valdez made an outstanding start, limiting José Rondón, the new ‘recordman’ for RBIs in one edition of the classic, to 15, and the Lions’ offense to just three hits through six and one-third innings. .
Valdez, the winner of the night, struck out six, including one inning, his fifth, in which he guillotined all three opponents he faced. Jairo Asencio scored his third rescue.
Third baseman Kelvin Gutiérrez, with a sacrifice fly in the second inning and first baseman Yamaico Navarro, with an RBI hit in the fifth, charted the first two Dominican streaks. The last one, at the feet of Luis Barrera, was caused by an error by third baseman Hernán Pérez in a throw that would have been the third out of the ninth.
By winning the championship at the Estadio Monumental Simón Bolívar, in Caracas, the Dominican Republic reaches 22 titles in the Caribbean Series, followed in the list of winners by country by Puerto Rico (16), Mexico (9), Cuba (8), Venezuela (7), Panama (2) and Colombia (1).