Staff Reports
World Baseball Network
The Tiburones de La Guaira won their eighth LIga Venezolana Beisbol Profesional title Sunday, shutting out the Cardenales de lara 3-0 in game five to win the championship series four games to one.
With the win, the Tiburones return to the Caribbean Series for the first time since 1986, when the event was held in Maracaibo, Venezuela.
Three Tiburones pitchers held the Cardenales to six hits, walking four batters and striking out five in the shutout.
Starter Ricardo Pinto went seven innings, allowing all six hits, walking three and striking out four, and was named the MVP of the championship series, throwing 14 innings, allowing eight total hits, and striking out 11 in two starts.
La Guaira got on the board in the fifth when Leonardo Reginatto singled to left, sending Harold Ramirez home with the first run of the game.
They’d add two more in the sixth. Yasiel Puig was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, scoring Alcides Escobar, and later in the inning, Danry Vasquez hit into a fielder’s choice with the bases full, scoring Luis Torrens.
In four appearances at the Caribbean Series, the Tiburones have finished second three times, in 1971, 1983, and 1986, and third in 1985.
They will open the Caribbean Series on Feb. 1 at 8:30 p.m. against the Dominican Republic’s Tigres del Licey at loanDepot Park in Miami. The Caribbean Series will be telecast in the United States on ESPN Deportes.