Nicaragua beats Netherlands, both head to placement round of U-23 Baseball World Cup

On the final day of Opening Round play in Hermosillo, Nicaragua’s pitching came to do work. World No. 14 Nicaragua carried a shutout to the bottom of the seventh inning and got nine hits from its own offense to pull away for a 6-1 win over world No. 8 on Monday at Estadio Sonora.

With the result, Nicaragua finished the Opening Round of the III U-23 Baseball World Cup at 2-3 while the Netherlands finished 1-4.

Both Nicaragua and the Netherlands will head to Ciudad Obregon for the placement round. In case of a three-way tie, Panama, which holds the head-to-head advantage with both Nicaragua and Korea, is set to join Venezuela and Colombia in the super round.

"We entered this tournament with higher expectations," commented Nicaragua's manager Sandor Guido. "We know want to finish in the best way possible and guarantee Nicaragua the most ranking points."

Making his second start of the tournament, Nicaragua left-hander Leo Crawford was terrific. Over four innings, Crawford limited the Netherlands to just one base hit while walking one and striking out three. The southpaw was efficient, throwing 38 strikes in 62 pitches and departing with a lead.

Nicaragua got on the board in the top of the second inning when Elian Miranda led off with a long home run to left field, and his team added two more runs in the third on a sacrifice fly by Mike Loaisiga after Cristhian Sandoval’s leadoff triple and an RBI single from Luis Montealto later in the inning.

By the time the Nicaragua bullpen took over, their side was in control. Oscar Rayo, like Crawford, allowed one hit but no runs while striking out three and walking one over his two innings.

Nicaragua put the game out of reach with three late runs. Montealto reached on a throwing error charged to Netherlands third baseman Junior Martina to lead off the sixth and scored on Wandley Ocon’s two-out RBI double to left-center. In the seventh, pinch hitter Aldo Espinoza and Milkar Perez led off with walks, and Brandon Fermin and Benjamin Alegría followed with RBI hits to extend the margin to 6-0.

Despite yielding his staff’s only run in the bottom of the sixth, Julio Raudez closed out the victory.