Visits: 0
By Ismael Nunez
It’s been a seesaw Baseball 2017 season for Puerto Rico. This past February they won the Caribbean World Series, they almost won the World Baseball Classic only to face defeat by Team USA.
Then this past August 6th 2017 at the Intermediate Little League World Series which took place in Livermore, California, team Puerto Rico
defeated team New Jersey which represented the East by a score of 6-5.
What is the Intermediate World Series? As Wikipedia describes clearly “The Intermediate League World Series is a baseball tournament for children aged 11 to 13 years old that began in 2013. It is patterned after the Little League World Series, which was named for the World Series in Major League Baseball. The tournament is held in Livermore, California.
The Intermediate division is the second of five Little League divisions by development. The pitching mound is 50 feet from home plate, and the base paths are 70 feet apart. This allows for a transition between the smaller field dimensions of Little League (46/60), and the
standard field dimensions of the advanced leagues (60.5/90). ” They add “Unlike the Little League World Series — which has sixteen regions (eight in the U.S. and eight international) — the Intermediate League World Series has only ten regions, plus a host team. The regional champions are divided into Pool A (U.S.) and Pool B (International). The teams advance to the semi-finals via a modified double elimination format; the semifinal and final are single elimination. Teams that lose their first two games face off in classification games.”
Team Puerto Rico struck first: Scoring in the bottom of the Third inning on a wild pitch. Then got two more runs scored from Third Base and Second Base on Single. Team New Jersey came back in the top of the 4th inning when the runner from Second Base scored on a
single. Then a big two run Home-Run to tie the game at 3-3.
In the top of the 5 th inning team New Jersey added two runs to increase their lead 5-3.
Then the spirit of Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente was alive! When in the bottom of 6th inning with Two Outs Team Puerto Rico Rallied with two men on scoring position scoring both runs on a long single to put the score at 5-5.
In the bottom of the 7th team Puerto Rico got two men on base, then a bunt to advance the runner to Third Base and then the game winning hit giving team Puerto Rico the Title!
Team Puerto Rico becomes the first Latin American Team to win the Intermediate World Baseball Championship! They join their fellow Puerto Ricans who made history in Baseball. Roberto Clemente the first Latin American elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame 1973 and
winner of 12 Gold Glove Awards of which he shares the record of most won among outfielders with Willie Mays.
Roberto Alomar winner of 12- Gold Gloves than any other second baseman in baseball history, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame January 5, 2011. Ivan Rodriguez who has won a record 13 Gold Gloves and was elected to the Hall of Fame on January 18th, 2017.
Someone once said Baseball in Puerto Rico might be in decline. After seeing the performance of this team in this tournament we see some
bright futures. As we say PALANTE! Meaning go forward
You must be logged in to post a comment Login