Where they stand: Dominican Republic, 3-1; Mexico, 2-2; Puerto Rico, 2-2; Venezuela, 1-3.
Quick summaries:
Puerto Rico 7, Dominican Republic 3. Danny Valencia had two hits and drove in three runs to lead Puerto Rico.
Mexico 3, Venezuela 2 (10 innings). An RBI single by Vinny Castilla in the bottom of the tenth drove in the winning run.
Today's games: Mexico v. Dominican Republic; Puerto Rico v. Venezuela. A win by the Dominican Republic and a loss by Puerto Rico would mean that the Dominican Republic had clinched the series.
More detail on the games after the jump:
Puerto Rico scored three in the first and three more in the sixth to hand the Dominican Republic its first loss, 7-3. A two-run double by Danny Valencia capped the three-run first. The Dominican Republic scored single runs in the third and fifth to cut the lead to 3-2. In the sixth, however, four singles produced three Puerto Rico runs and put the game away. Duluth native Andrew Baldwin (Seattle) started for Puerto Rico, but did not get the win because he did not complete the fifth inning. The win went, instead, to Orlando Roman, who pitched 2.1 innings of perfect relief. Valencia led the Puerto Rico offense with two hits and three RBIs. Randy Ruiz (Toronto) also had two hits, as well as a pair of walks. Juan Francisco (Cincinnati) led the Dominican Republic with two hits and two RBIs. Felix Diaz gave up the first three Puerto Rico runs and was the losing pitcher.
Vinny Castilla's RBI single in the bottom of the tenth gave Mexico a 3-2 victory over Venezuela. Venezuela had scored single runs in the second and third to take a 2-0 lead. Mexico got on the board with a run in the fourth and tied the score in the sixth on a Karim Garcia home run. The game-winner came off Venezuela's Elio Serrano, who induced a double-play to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth, but was able to retire only one batter out of four in the tenth. Garcia was the only Mexico player with two hits. Luis Maza had two hits for Venezuela, and Michael Ryan hit a home run in a losing effort. Juan Delgadillo gave up only two runs on six hits in eight innings, but got only a no-decision for his efforts. The win went to Mario Mendoza, who pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief.
Vinny Castilla's RBI single went about 390 feet off the wall in LCF.
I've been catching what I can on the MLBN and ESPN Deportes. As always, the games are great, but the series is worth watching for the raucous crowds alone.