Washington, January. 2 (PL) - Puerto Rico with its Criollos de Caguas and Curacao Suns will take the field this Friday at Miami's Loan Depot Park to defend their undefeated records in the Caribbean Series.
After debuting with victories on the opening day, the Puerto Ricans of legendary former catcher Yadier Molina will face the Naranjeros de Hermosillo of Juan Gabriel Castro, while the Curacao Suns of Hanley Statia will face the Federales de Chiriqui (Panama), managed by Jose Mayorga.
The Criollos, winners of five titles in these regional classics (1954, 1974, 1987, 2017 and 2018), defeated Nicaragua, a debutant team in these games, 5-2 the day before.
A dozen of unstoppable runs supported the work of the seven pitchers who took the mound to open their winning streak.
Their Mexican rivals, with a pair of trophies in their trophy cabinets (1976 and 2014), rebelled at the time of picking up the bats in their first presentation, but their powder was not enough and they fell 5-6 against Curaçao.
The small Caribbean islanders, armed with four big leaguers in their ranks, showed that they will not be a delicacy for anyone and this Friday they will try to beat the Canal Islanders, a squad that is making its third incursion in this tournament and had no action yesterday.
In the other duel of the day, the defeated Nicas and the Tigres del Licey of the Dominican Republic, who also suffered a setback in their debut, will face each other.
Top winners in the Caribbean Series with 11 titles, the felines of Quisqueya could do little against the pitchers of the Tiburones de La Guaira in the game that closed the first day of the calendar and were defeated with a score of 3-1.
The Venezuelan Escualos will keep their undefeated record for at least another day, because they have no game scheduled for this date.In this 66th edition, a round-robin format will be used and the four teams with the most wins will face each other in a crossed semifinal (1st vs. 4th and 2nd vs. 3rd) to define the two teams that will compete for the gold medal.
