Last night the Aguilas Cibaenas buried the hopes of the Tigres del Licey to classify for the second part of the tournament, the round robin. The 4-1 loss dropped the Tigres into the cellar. Manny Ramirez and Miguel Tejada were the offensive stars and Samuel Deduno and TJ Pena did the work from the mound. The other team from Santo Domingo, the Leones del Escogido, was victorious in their hard-fought game against the struggling Toros del Este. The 6-5 victory came in the 13th inning for the Reds after Fernando Tatis hit a single and stole second base. Then Wilkin Castillo drove a ball into right field to bring home Tatis from second. In San Francisco de Macoris, the Gigantes del Cibao defeated the Estrellas Orientales by a score of 4-3, with a dramatic, walk-off, ninth inning homerun from Nelson Cruz which left the Estrellas with nothing to do in the field except pack their bags and go back home.
Standings
TEAM
WINS-LOSSES
AVG
GAMES BEHIND
AGUILAS
31 – 17
.646
—
ESTRELLAS
29 – 18
.625
1.0
GIGANTES
22 – 26
.458
9.0
TOROS
21 – 26
.426
9.5
ESCOGIDO
20 – 28
.417
11.5
LICEY
19 – 28
.404
11.5
Games tonight, Wednesday 19 December, and possible starting pitchers:
* Estadio Quisqueya, Santo Domingo, 7:30pm – Gigantes del Cibao (F. Castro) vs. Tigres del Licey (E. Rogers)
* Estadio Cibao, Santiago de los Caballeros, 7:30pm – Toros del Este (K. Slowley) vs. Aguilas Cibaenas (Lorenzo Barcelo)
* San Pedro de Macoris, Tetelo Vargas Stadium, 8pm – Leones del Escogido (D. Corcino) vs. Estrellas Orientales (E. McClane)