On Monday, the final day of the knockout stage at the Caribbean Cup, multiple teams competed to play in the gold and bronze medal games. The U.S. Virgin Islands took on St. Maarten in a high-scoring affair to kick off the action.
U.S. Virgin Islands 10 – St. Maarten 5
The U.S. Virgin Islands came into their final game against St. Maarten with a win and get-in opportunity. If they defeated St. Maarten, they would qualify for the Caribbean Cup gold medal game for the first time in their history. They struck St. Maarten starter Yassir Lachkart early and got on the board via a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded from Te’Relle George to go up 1-0. In the second, a bunt single from Niquan Benjamin that rolled softly to the pitcher was able to score a runner to make it 2-0 in favor of USVI.
However, St. Maarten refused to make a trip to the final for the Virgin Islands easy as a triple in the top of the third inning from Victor Draijer scored two to tie the game. St. Maarten then took the lead off of a two-run error on a grounder to third base off the bat of Jeldwin Orman, and the first baseman was not able to field cleanly off the throw. The score was 4-2 in favor of St. Maarten after the top of the third inning.
In the bottom of the third, the Virgin Islands got one run back off of a double from Te’Relle George to make it 4-3. Mark Knight then tied the game with a single that scored George to make it 4-4. At this point, Finn Kragt relieved Lachkhart for St. Maarten, and the Virgin Islands started to roll from there.
USVI continued to add and repeatedly put the bat on the ball off of Kragt. They stretched the lead to 10-4 by the end of the bottom of the third inning to turn a two-run deficit at the start of the inning into a six-run lead.
St. Maarten got one run back in the top of the sixth inning, but it was too little too late for St. Maarten as the Virgin Islands closed it out in the seventh inning to clinch their spot in the gold medal game on Oct. 28 at 7:00 p.m. EST.
As the only team to compete in every single Caribbean Cup since its formation in 2018, they qualify for the gold medal game for the first time. For St. Maarten, they still have the possibility to compete for the bronze medal.
