Venezuela vs. Hawaii for crown Latin America champs cruise past Virginia

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BANGOR – Two undefeated teams motivated in part by past heartbreak will play Saturday for the 2006 Senior League World Series championship.

Pearl City, Hawaii, SLWS runnerup a year ago, will be joined in the 2:30 p.m. final by Falcon, Venezuela, a team featuring six players that lost in the championship game of the 2004 Junior League World Series while representing the Paraguana Little League.

The Latin American champions earned its ticket to the title game with an 11-1 semifinal victory over Yorktown, Va., in a game that ended in the sixth inning under the 10-run rule Friday night .

“It feels good, because it’s a second chance to play for a world championship,” said Venezuela catcher Eduardo Cuba through an interpreter, teammate Brian Mora. “Before we played in the Junior League championship and lost to [Tampa] Florida.

“This year we get another chance, and with God’s help we can win this time.”

Venezuela (5-0) gradually pulled away in its semifinal, despite some early wildness by starting pitcher Adarberto Ruiz, who walked five batters in the first three innings but remained unscored upon as the U.S. South champions managed just one early hit.

“We got baserunners on, but we couldn’t get a big hit, and once they got the momentum, man they just started rolling,” said Yorktown manager Tommy Bayse. “They’re a good team, so you’ve got to capitalize when you’ve got a chance to get runs, and we just didn’t do it.”

Venezuela took a 2-0 lead with two outs in the bottom of the second on a two-run opposite-field double by No. 9 hitter Lesme Pena, then broke the game open with five runs in the fourth inning and three more runs in the fifth.

“We thought we would hit sooner or later, because we started to see their pitcher [Chad Guy] better and made adjustments,” said Cuba.

Venezuela played without leadoff hitter and starting shortstop Freddy Galvis, sidelined with a separated shoulder, but it didn’t matter.

Dennys Osteicoechea moved from center field to shortstop to spearhead an errorless defensive effort.

“We’ve just got to play with the people who can play,” said Venezuela manager Osmar Reyes. “Galvis can’t play, but we have other people who can do the work.”

Ruiz walked just one batter over the final three innings, and finished with a complete game four-hitter to pick up his second tournament win.

Pena had two singles to go with his double to pace Venezuela’s 12-hit attack. Osateicoechea and Cuba each doubled and singled, while Leonardo Rojas singled twice and scored three runs and Marcos Pina laid down three successful sacrifice bunts.

Yorktown scored its only run in the fifth when Adam McConnell hit a one-out single to center and scored on David Everhart’s two-out double down the right-field line.

It was the only extra-base hit for Yorktown, which struggled offensively once Ruiz found his groove with fastballs on the outside corner of the plate.

“We were trying to get our guys to get more aggressive and step up toward the plate and look for that first pitch, even if it was outside,” said Bayse. “But we have some pull hitters and they don’t like to hit that outside pitch. You’ve got to hit it to the opposite field, and we didn’t do a good job of it today.”

LATIN AMERICA 11, U.S. SOUTH 1

Yorktown, Va. (3-2) Venezuela (5-0)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Wagner, 2b-p 4 0 1 0 Osteicoechea, ss 4 2

Brown, 1b-ss 2 0 0 0 Perozo, cf 3 1 0

McConnell, ss-p 3 1 1 0 Diaz, 3b-rf 3 1

Guy, p-1b 2 0 0 0 Pernalete, rf 1 0 0

Clark, 2b 0 0 0 0 Cuba, c-3b 3 0 1

Everhart, c 1 0 1 1 Garcia, rf-c 3 1 0

Hawkins, rf 2 0 1 0 Rojas, 1b 3 3 0

Dent, rf 0 0 0 0 Pina, 2b 1 0 0

Yeo, lf-cf 2 0 0 0 Ruiz, p 1 0 0 0

Bayse, 3b 3 0 0 0 Morillo, ph-pr 2 3 0

Barber, 1b 1 0 0 0 Pena, lf 3 2 3

Hornsby, pr 0 0 0 0

Totals 21 1 4 1 Totals 27 11 12 7

Virginia 000 010 – 1

Venezuela 020 531 – 11

E-Wagner, Brown 2, McConnell; LOB-Virginia 9, Venezuela 7; 2B-Everhart; Osteicoechea, Cuba, Pena; S-Hawkins; Pina 3

Virginia IP H R ER BB SO

Guy (L, 1-1) 3 2/3 9 7 7 0 3

McConnell 2/3 2 3 0 0 0

Wagner 2/3 1 1 0 1 1

Venezuela IP H R ER BB SO

Ruiz (W, 2-0) 6 4 1 1 6 7

HBP-Garcia (by Guy), Perzo (by Guy), Rojas (by Wagner); PB-Everhart 2; T-2:11; ATT-950