Dominican Republic advances to 2024 Caribbean Series finals

[Kevin Barral]

Final score: DR 4, PAN 1

The Dominican Republic avenged their loss to Panamá from the day before, putting them on the verge of repeating as tournament champs.

MIAMI FL—Within the first hour of Thursday's semifinal game, the Dominican Republic took a 2-0 lead. They never looked back on their way to defeating Panamá and moving onto the 2024 Caribbean Series championship game.

Panama starting pitcher Harold Arauz saw his start get cut short after struggling through 2 ⅓ innings, where he gave up three runs, walked three and only struck out two. The first run that Arauz gave up, an RBI single to third baseman Dawel Lugo, drove in Gustavo Nuñez who worked a walk in his plate appearance. Lugo was tagged out trying to go for second base, which made it an early 1-0 game in favor of the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Republic's second run would come in after Junior Lake drew a walk and advanced to second base on a balk. Emilio Bonifacio drove Lake home on an RBI single.

The third and final run that Arauz would give up happened after he was replaced by reliever Steven Fuentes. Yadiel Hernández had a sac fly, which drove in the inherited runner, Emilio Bonifacio.

In his 3 ⅓ innings pitched, Fuentes struck out two, giving up one run off of four hits. In the top of the sixth inning, first baseman Kelvin Gutierrez drove in Yadiel Hernández, who had a base hit in his at-bat. This extended the Dominican Republic's lead to 4-0.

Although Panamá had multiple attempts with runners in scoring position, Dominican Republic starter Cameron Gann gave Gilbert Gómez and his team 4 ⅓ strong innings of shutout baseball. Gann struck out two, walked two and allowed three hits. In place of Gann, Jonathan Aro entered the game in relief.

A total of five relievers entered the game for the Dominican Republic. Although they allowed five hits and one RBI to make it a 4-1 game, Panamá frequently ran the ball into ground or swung underneath it. Their offense produced only one extra-base hit.

Panamá plays one last game on Friday at 3:00 p.m. against the loser of the Venezuela/Curacao game to determine who will be the third-place team in the Caribbean Series. As for the Dominican Republic, they will now aim for their 23rd Caribbean Series win on Friday night against the winner of Venezuela/Curacao.

 

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