By Lewis Rubman

Colombia (0-2) 0 2 2
Panama (1-1) 1 5 2

HATO REY, PUERTO RICO–This morning’s contest between Colombia’s Vaqueros (Cowboys) of Montería and Panama’s Chiquirí Astronautas was, as the score indicates, a close one, a pitchers´duel that wasn’t decided until the last out. It came, appropriately enough, on a strike that was in between a checked swing and a swing and miss. (The home plate ruled it was the later). The tying run was in scoring position.

Panama scored the first, only, and winning run in the bottom of the fourth. After Jhonny Santos flew out to Robinson Cabrera at the foot of the left field fence-the hardest hit ball of the game-a two base error by Mauricio Ramos, the Cowboys´third baseman, set up Isaías Velásquez´s run scoring single to center.

Colombia came close to tying the Panamanians in the top of the eighth in an at bat that showed that this game was not just a pitchers’ duel but a managers’ duel as well. With two outs and a man on second, Vaqueros skipper Ozney Guillén called on left handed batting José Brizuela to hit for the right handed Brallan Pérez.

What made this interesting is that the pitcher was a lefty, Davis Romero. The Astronautas´ manager. Julio Alberto Mosquera, and his pitching coach, Gerardo Casadiego, countered this move by calling on right handed reliever Diego Moreno.

With both sides having gone against the conventional wisdom concerning handedness, the Panamanian brain trust turned out to have made the wiser decision. Brizuela took a called third strike on a three and two pitch.

It was pinch hitter Isranel Wilson who wasn’t able to check his swing in time to prolong the game.

The pitching statistics are worth noting.

Colombia
PItcher IP H R ER BB K PC
Echemendia 4-2/3 3 1 0 1 1 55
Herrera 2-1/3 2 0 0 0 3 25
Almarante 0 0 0 0 1 0 7 (one HBP)
Acevedo 1 0 0 0 1 0 11

Panama
Romero 7-2/3 1 0 0 2 2 80
Moreno 1-1/3 1 9 9 2 4 22

As you would expect, Pedro Echemendia was the losing pitcher, and the win and the save went to Davis Romero and Diego Moreno, respectivey.

Panama, at 1-1, is now a half a game behind yesterday’s winners, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, and it leads Mexlco by the same margin. Colombia is now two games behind the pace setters.

Puerto Rico, playing as the visitors, takes on Mexico in an hour or so, and the Dominicans will play Venezuela at 8:30.