NewsWhore
12-12-2011, 01:00 PM
The Dominican Winter League Championship took a major turn over the weekend as the Leones of Escogido won their seventh game in a row and firmly established themselves in the fourth and final playoff spot in the standings. How they did this is probably the story of the weekend.
They started on Friday night, beating the tough Estrellas Orientales 3-1, with Pedro Florimon once again driving in the winning runs and Jorge Sosa pitching six innings and giving the Estrellas just one run. In other action on Friday, the Aguilas took an exciting game from the Toros in La Romana, 2-0, thanks to a suicide-squeeze bunt by Oscar Luna and near-perfect pitching by Shane Youman and Miguel Batista. The eighth inning started 0-0, but a base on balls to Francisco Pena, who was substituted for by Bernie Castro. A bunt hit by Jonathan Villar put men on first and second. A sacrifice bunt by Elian Herrera put men on second and third, and after a pitching change by the Toros, a third bunt by Luna drove in the winning run, which was followed by a single by Juan Carlos Perez to put the icing on the victory cake. The game between the Gigantes and Licey was cancelled because of rain.
On Saturday, the Leones once again were victorious as they beat up on their "Eternal Rivals," the Tigres del Licey, 8-2, in the Estadio Quisqueya. This was their sixth straight victory. Once again the bats of Josh Donaldson, Pablo Ozuna, Starling Marte and Mauro Gomez were hot, providing nine of the team's 15 hits. The victory, combined with the Aguilas 3-1 victory over the Gigantes, gave the Escogido team a 1 ? game margin over fifth place Gigantes. The Aguilas victory was pretty much the work of Omar Luna, Elian Herrera and Mike Rivera who provided Angel Castro with enough runs to earn the victory. Over in San Pedro de Macoris, the Estrellas Orientales cut their four-game losing streak and defeated the Toros del Este 2-0, thanks to great pitching by Manauris Baez, who pitched six shutout innings and three relievers who completed the shutout. Felix Pie and Archie Gilbert along with Eugenio Velez provided the winning runs.
On Sunday the Leones visited the Aguilas Cibaenas and came away with their seventh victory in a row, an 11-2 pounding of the Aguilas, who are already classified for the Round Robin portion of the tournament. The game was on ice, 9-0, before the Aguilas were able to score a run. The bats of Pascuccim Donaldson and Florimon and Perez were really hot and the Leones had no trouble with Browning's pitches. In the other games, pitching and defense were the keys as the Toros whitewashed the Gigantes 1-0 and the Tigres squeezed by the Estrellas 4-3 with a clutch hit by Yamaico Navarro in the ninth inning to break the 3-3 tie and win the game.
The standings for the tournament are: <b>Team <b>Win-Loss <b>Average <b>Games behind AGUILAS 28 - 16 .636 -- TIGRES 23 - 20 .535 4.5 TOROS 23 - 21 .523 5.0 LEONES 21 - 23 .477 7.0 GIGANTES 18 - 25 .419 9.5 ESTRELLAS 18 - 26 .409 10.0
No games are scheduled for today and tomorrow is the All Star Game in Caracas, Venezuela.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)
They started on Friday night, beating the tough Estrellas Orientales 3-1, with Pedro Florimon once again driving in the winning runs and Jorge Sosa pitching six innings and giving the Estrellas just one run. In other action on Friday, the Aguilas took an exciting game from the Toros in La Romana, 2-0, thanks to a suicide-squeeze bunt by Oscar Luna and near-perfect pitching by Shane Youman and Miguel Batista. The eighth inning started 0-0, but a base on balls to Francisco Pena, who was substituted for by Bernie Castro. A bunt hit by Jonathan Villar put men on first and second. A sacrifice bunt by Elian Herrera put men on second and third, and after a pitching change by the Toros, a third bunt by Luna drove in the winning run, which was followed by a single by Juan Carlos Perez to put the icing on the victory cake. The game between the Gigantes and Licey was cancelled because of rain.
On Saturday, the Leones once again were victorious as they beat up on their "Eternal Rivals," the Tigres del Licey, 8-2, in the Estadio Quisqueya. This was their sixth straight victory. Once again the bats of Josh Donaldson, Pablo Ozuna, Starling Marte and Mauro Gomez were hot, providing nine of the team's 15 hits. The victory, combined with the Aguilas 3-1 victory over the Gigantes, gave the Escogido team a 1 ? game margin over fifth place Gigantes. The Aguilas victory was pretty much the work of Omar Luna, Elian Herrera and Mike Rivera who provided Angel Castro with enough runs to earn the victory. Over in San Pedro de Macoris, the Estrellas Orientales cut their four-game losing streak and defeated the Toros del Este 2-0, thanks to great pitching by Manauris Baez, who pitched six shutout innings and three relievers who completed the shutout. Felix Pie and Archie Gilbert along with Eugenio Velez provided the winning runs.
On Sunday the Leones visited the Aguilas Cibaenas and came away with their seventh victory in a row, an 11-2 pounding of the Aguilas, who are already classified for the Round Robin portion of the tournament. The game was on ice, 9-0, before the Aguilas were able to score a run. The bats of Pascuccim Donaldson and Florimon and Perez were really hot and the Leones had no trouble with Browning's pitches. In the other games, pitching and defense were the keys as the Toros whitewashed the Gigantes 1-0 and the Tigres squeezed by the Estrellas 4-3 with a clutch hit by Yamaico Navarro in the ninth inning to break the 3-3 tie and win the game.
The standings for the tournament are: <b>Team <b>Win-Loss <b>Average <b>Games behind AGUILAS 28 - 16 .636 -- TIGRES 23 - 20 .535 4.5 TOROS 23 - 21 .523 5.0 LEONES 21 - 23 .477 7.0 GIGANTES 18 - 25 .419 9.5 ESTRELLAS 18 - 26 .409 10.0
No games are scheduled for today and tomorrow is the All Star Game in Caracas, Venezuela.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)