Teams continued to compete to see who will be the two teams atop the standings on the fourth day of play of the Caribbean Cup. The U.S. Virgin Islands, Curaçao, and Cuba have separated themselves from the pack, but every team came to play on Oct. 26. Here’s the summary of all the action.
Dominican Republic 4 – U.S. Virgin Islands 3
The Virgin Islands came into this game with a 2-1 record against a Dominican team that had yet to win a game. The Virgin Islands scored first in the top of the first inning to go up 1-0, but the Dominican Republic offense started off even better, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first to take a 2-1 lead.
Virgin Islands’ pitcher Te’relle George and Dominican pitcher Yonawil Florimon kept the game at 2-1 with decent starting pitching performances until the top of the fourth when Luis Tavera was able to make contact with a Te’relle George fastball and generate a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1. Randy Fransisco was able to add to the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning with a single lined to center to give the Dominican Republic a 4-1 lead after five innings.
The Virgin Islands responded in the top of the sixth, as a Zayd Brannigan RBI double put a run on the board for the Virgin Islands for the first time since the first inning to make it 4-2. They continued to chip away with an Isranel single with one out to make it a one run game at 4-3.
The Dominican did not score in the top of the seventh, so the Virgin Islands were only trailing by one run going into the bottom of the seventh. Fortunately for the Dominican, relief pitcher Christopher Rodriguez, who had come in during the bottom of the sixth, was able to close the game out. He struck out Dwayne Maduro to end the game and pick up a 4-3 win for the Dominican Republic over the Virgin Islands.
The DR picked up their first win of the tournament and put a dent into the championship hopes of USVI, as they move to 2-2. They will face St. Maarten
Curaçao 5 – St. Maarten 0
Curaçao moved to 3-1 with a solid win over St. Maarten, bringing them one step closer to competing in the Caribbean Cup gold medal game on Oct. 28. Both teams had their pitchers throw a complete game, but only Curaçao’s Jeandrick Lourens was able to throw a complete game shutout.
Curaçao scored one run in the first inning and then three in the second inning. From there, they almost coasted behind the arm of Lourens. Lourens only allowed one hit the entire game and struck out three batters.
Sven Van de Sanden was the hurler for St. Maarten and he did a good job of giving his team seven solid innings of work, but his team was not able to rally around him. Of the five runs that Curaçao scored on Van de Sanden in his seven innings, only one was earned. Four errors and a lack of offensive production made a game a little more out of reach than performance actually indicated for St. Maarten.
A couple of big performers on the offensive side for the Curaçao squad were Darren Seferina, Phildrick Llewellyn, and Christian diaz. Seferina had two hits and two RBIs with one of his hits being a home run, Llewellyn had two hits as well with one of them being a triple, and Diaz recorded one hit and one RBI. Curaçao has positioned themselves well to qualify for the Caribbean Cup gold medal game on Oct. 28, but they will have to get past Cuba on Oct. 27 to do so. St. Maarten will next take on the U.S. Virgin Islands on Oct. 27 at 11:00 a.m. EST.
Cuba 5 – Bahamas 2
Cuba came into the matchup with a 2-1 record against the host nation of the 2024 Caribbean Cup and walked out of the night game at Andre Rodgers National Baseball Stadium with a victory. The Bahamas were coming off of back-to-back losses in knockout play after winning their opener, but could not get back on track against the defending Cup champions.
The Cuban lineup got to Bahamian starting pitcher Tahnaj Thomas early, scoring three runs in the first inning. They followed that up by scoring two runs in the second and did not look back. The top of the Cuban lineup had a very strong performance with the one, two, and three hitters for Cuba all recording at least one hit, scoring at least one run, and bringing in at least one RBI. After two innings, it was all Cuba up 5-0. In the fourth inning, the Bahamas were able to get to Cuban starter Enyer Frnandez as Bahamian catcher Brian Johnson delivered a two RBI double to make the score 5-2. Cuban manager Alexander Urquiola then chose to go to his bullpen and that proved to be a smart decision as the Bahamas did not score for the rest of the contest. Cuba wins the game 5-2 and picks up the win over the Bahamas.
Behind a strong start and excellent bullpen performance, Cuba picks up their third win in four games of the Caribbean Cup. The next game they have is against 3-1 Curaçao in which both teams have a chance to qualify for the tournament final. Team Bahamas has now lost three straight and will next play the Dominican Republic in a battle of 1-3 teams.
The entire tournament will be available to watch on r1live.com with game recaps available here on at the World Baseball Network.
