SANTO DOMINGO.- Ronny Mauricio homered for the second night in a row and drove in three runs to support the pitching work of the Tigres del Licey who, on a successive day, whited the Águilas Cibaeñas, this time 6-0, this Sunday afternoon at the Quisqueya Juan Marichal stadium.
With that victory, Licey became the only leader of the Dominican professional baseball championship, with a 6-2 record, while the Eagles (5-3) fell to second place.
The blue pitching combined the work of four pitchers to limit the Cibaeños to only two hits, who struck out 12 times. With Saturday’s shutout, the Eagles are 18 scoreless innings and have hit four singles.
Mauricio hit his inside-the-park homer off starter David Holmberg with a running runner in the third and added an RBI single from another round in the sixth.
The game was opened by Licey, Elvin Rodríguez, who worked four shutout innings and only allowed one hit, with eight strikeouts, leaving his ERA at 0.00, with a 0.50 whip. He left without decision. He was followed in the box by the North American Yaya Chentouf (5), Arodys Vizcaíno (6) and Esmil Rogers (7).
Holmberg opened for the Eagles, who in two innings allowed five hits and three runs, all clean. Jesse Schoiltens (3), Joan Martínez (6), Dario Alvarez (6) and Wendolyn Bautista (7) followed him into the box.
The victory went to Chentouf (1-0) and Holmberg lost (0-2).
as they scored
The Tigers scored three runs to decide the game in the third inning off starter Holmberg. Nottingham had a hit to center field, Luis Barrera followed with a double to right field to put men on second and third. After Emilio Bonifacio flied out to shortstop, Elly de la Cruz hit a sacrifice fly to right field for the first blue round. Mauricio continued with a drive that could not be caught by center fielder Canario and the ball ran to the wall as the batter came around the infield for a two-run home run to make the game 3-0.
In the fifth episode, Licey returned to the attack with another two rounds against reliever Josse Scholtens. Nottingham singled to center and was forced into second by a hit by E. Bonifacio who ran at first. De la Cruz doubled the center back and Bonifacio scored. Mauricio followed with an RBI single to center for 5-0.
In the sixth, the Tigers continued the attack against Joan Martínez’s shipments and added one more run. Charles LeBlanc singled to left field, Ramon Hernandez was hit, Aristides Aquino walked and the bases were loaded. Jorge Bonifacio was hit and LeBlanc scored. Darío Álvarez entered to pitch for Martínez and made the three outs with consecutive strikeouts to Nottingham, Barrera and Bonifacio.
on the offensive
The best hitters for the Tigers were Mauricio 4-2 with three RBIs, Aquino 4-2, Nottingham 4-2 with one run scored, De la Cruz 3-1 with one run scored and another RBI, Barrera 3-1 with one scored and one RBI.
For the Eagles, Tyler Nevin 4-1 and Melky Cabrera 3-1.
