Panama concludes SC first round with win over DR

MIAMI — Federal de Chiriquí capped off a dominant first-round performance on Wednesday with a 3-1 win over Tigres del Licey. The Panama team now hopes to remain on top after losing to Venezuela in the last match of the first round.

Johnny Santos and Christian Bethancourt hit solo homers for the Federals, who also had a one-run RBI single by Johan Camargo to support their offense.

Starter Ernesto Silva pitched five one-run innings and Davis Romero earned the win with an impressive four-inning shutout.

“I think we did everything well, great pitching, great defense and we hit on time, which showed in the results. “We have come here for everything, to reach the final and win it, we are happy because qualifying was the first objective, but the most important game is tomorrow,” said Panama leader Jose Mayorga.

With the loss, the Dominican Republic finished third in the first round with a record of 3–3, and will be measured in the semi-finals against the second-place finisher in the first round.

“We come up with the task of repeating as champions, we haven’t consistently played our best baseball, but we’ve done what we need to do to get where we want to be. Tigres leader Gilbert Gomez commented, “We are in the semifinals and we have everything we need to win the two remaining games.”