Crucial week to define positions in professional baseball

After four consecutive defeats, two against tigers, in Barranquilla, and two before Cowboys, in Monteria, alligators gave up first place Colombian Professional Baseball League 2022-2023, which is now in the possession of the feline team of Cartagena.

The ninth from Barranquilla, with a record of 21 wins and 15 losses, fell to third place, two games behind the leader Tigres (23-13), and one game behind the second, Vaqueros (22-14). Toros (6-30) accumulates 10 losses in a row and is already eliminated.

With six games left for each team to complete the regular season, the championship enters a crucial phase this week, in which the positions will be defined with a view to the start of the semifinal, which will be five games, on January 10.

The team that finishes in the first position will qualify directly for the final playoff, agreed to seven games, which will start on January 17.

This will be the end of the regular season

Caimanes, defending champion, has the opportunity to regain the lead in the championship since it will no longer leave Barranquilla. On Tuesday and Friday they will face Tigres; on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, to Vaqueros and on Sunday, to Toros. From Tuesday to Saturday there will be doubles at the Édgar Rentería stadium.

After the Christmas break, Caimanes has not been able to reap victories. He fell 8-5 and 11-8 (in 11 innings) with the Tigers and 8-3 and 8-4 with the Vaqueros. The team led by José Mosquera Crissón, who led practically from the beginning of the championship, let slip a two-game lead over Cartagena and three and a half over Montería.

Tigres, under the command of Jair Fernández, assumed the lead thanks to a streak of eight consecutive victories. The cats have not lost since December 18, when they lost 15-6 to Vaqueros, in Montería.

Tigres has the best collective offensive average of the tournament (.299), followed by Caimanes (.284) and Vaqueros (.278). The cats also have four of their players among the top home run hitters of the season: Ronaldo Hernández (8), Meibrys Viloria (8) and the Dominicans Víctor Nova (6) and Deibinson Romero (6).

Hernández, who last year was promoted to the Boston Red Sox team, although he did not make his debut, hit two home runs in last week’s series against the Caimanes, in which he drove in five runs.

Tigres has the three best hitters in the championship by average: Jesús Marriaga (.390), Roberto Caro (.370) and Brallan Pérez (.364). Deibinson Romero, also from Tigres, is the leading pusher (41), followed by Andrés Álvarez, from Caimanes (36) and Ronaldo Hernández and Adrián Sánchez, both with 34.

The home run leader in the League is Daniel Vellojín, from Vaqueros, with 11 home runs. The player, who belongs to the Cincinnati Reds organization, hit three homers in the two games against Caimanes, in Montería.

“We are happy to be in this position (first in the standings) and to make the fans of Cartagena dream. It was one of the things that we set out to do from day one and it was to bring the fans back to the stadium. Cartagena is a shower of talent in baseball, and that is the product of the work of the instructors. We are happy to have the opportunity to make those fans dream again and we are working hard, giving 150 percent of the boys’ abilities on the pitch and hopefully things can happen this year”, commented Jair Fernández, Tigers manager.

This Tuesday, the game between Tigres and Caimanes will start at 2 pm, and that of Vaqueros y Toros, at 7 pm

SPORTS
With Kronos Agency

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