Marlins P.C. won Spain “Copa del Rey” last August in an exciting Final Four system Cup with the top Spanish teams of La Liga 2010, played at El Burgado field, in the Canary Islands.
Both semi-finals were worth watching for lots of fans: First, Beisbol Navarra defeated current Champion and main favourite Sant Boi (1-2) in a nice pitchers’ duel. and perfect defences by both squads. In fact the game was decided at the top of 8th inning, with two consecutive solo homeruns by Larry Infante and Hector Perozo (4 hits, 1 triple, 1 HR in the game). The other hero of the game was lefty pitcher Juan Lopez, who got the win in the whole game, allowing only 3 hits for Sant Boi and getting 5 SO. Jose Estebin Cruz charged with the loss.
Second semi-final had only a hard path for Marlins up to the 7th inning, with a 6-6 tie in the scoreboard. But Marlins scored 5 in a row to break a definitive gap in this game, and increasing the final score up to 6-14 in last innings.
FC Barcelona had to use several pitchers trying to stop powerful offence by Marlins, but it was not possible this time: Names like F Tavarez (4 hits, 3 RBI), L Galvan (3 hits, 3 RBI), N Boulet (2 hits, 4 RBI), J Castillo (3 hits) and nettunense Dewis Navarro (3 hits, 1 HR) had their best day with the bat.
Ivan Granados (5.2, no ER) was the winner, after relieving Nacar and Noguera (1.2 IP each one). Ramon (3 hits 1 HR), Febles (2 hits, 2 RBI) and O Angulo (2 doubles) were the best for BCN offence.
The 3rd/4th place game showed a victory 7-4 for FC Barcelona.
FINAL: BEISBOL NAVARRA 5 – 6 MARLINS P.C.
And the final game was also a beautiful baseball game, with a colourful full stands of Marlins fans, who also recognized the excellent performance by Beisbol Navarra at the Cup, under direction of coach Patxi Mezquiriz.
The game started with 1-1 tie in the 3 first innings, with L Nacar and H Perozo as good starters and nice defence plays for both teams. But the 4th inning was the key point: with 2 outs, F Tavarez produced a RBI double, and later, L Galvan got the winning 3 RBI homer. Marlins scored one more run in 5th, after a wild pitch and throwing error.
But Navarra did not give up, though a hard-to-reach 1-6 in the score: they fought up to score 2 runs in 5th, and 2 more in 6th: 5- in the score, which would remain untouchable up to the end for both teams. Leslie Nacar, the winning pitcher (5 R, 4 ER, 7 SO) had the merit of controlling Navarra’s reaction, also with perfect defences.
For Navarre ,several players had an outstanding performance, like young reliever pitcher A Casado (5 IP, 1 R, no ER, 3 SO), and batters Alfonso (2 runs-homer, J Lopez (2 H), V Martinez (2 hits) and L Villanueva (1 hit, 2 RBI).
For Marlins, together with Nacar players shined specially: L Galvan as run production main actor, Montiel (2 H, 1 RBI), F Tavarez (2 H, 2 RBI) and Ivan Granados, who as a DH made 2 hits, making him to deserve the MVP of the 2010 Copa del Rey.
2010’s Cup went back to Marlins, but Beisbol Navarra was so near to touch the glory –it would be the first main title of this young team who is making relevant steps in Spanish Baseball.
FIND THE BOXSCORES, ROSTERS AND STATS AT:
http://www.rfebeisbolsofbol.com/estadisticas/2010/rey/res.asp
