“This is a tremendous team.” Curaçao risked its life against Puerto Rico

Miami, Florida – moments after the Curacao Suns They were dominated by Tigres de Lisy From the Dominican Republic, manager Henley Statia practically turned the page as his team still has life in the 2024 Caribbean Series.

On Wednesday, the last day of the preliminary stage, Curaçao (2-3) will play against champion Criollos de Caguas of Puerto Rico (3-2) to qualify for the semi-finals. A win would tie them at 3-3 with a chance to advance depending on other results.

“Puerto Rico is a tremendous team. we know that. They play ball the way it’s supposed to be played, but we’re going to come prepared and the boys know the importance of the game. I’ve already talked to them about it and they know we have to win tomorrow,” the leader said after his team was beaten 2-0 by the Dominican Republic.

Statia did not announce who will start the important and decisive match which will be played first thing in the morning (10:30 am ET) at Lone Depot Park.

“We still don’t know who will pitch. I’m going to have a meeting with our coaches to see who is the best option to open tomorrow,” he explained. “We look at a lot of stats to see what gives us an edge over other teams. “Will give the best chance against.”

Regarding the blowout against Tigres del Licey, Statia gave a lot of credit to the work of Cuban veteran Raúl Valdés, who kept the Suns hitters off balance.

“They have good pitching and have done a good job. Our pitchers also did a good job. Valdes threw us off balance and they had good arms coming out of the bullpen. “It’s baseball, you’ve got to score runs if you want to win,” he said.

Curaçao’s attack, featuring hitters Vladimir Ballantyan, Jurickson Profar, Didi Gregorius, Jonathan Shoop and Andrelton Simmons, managed only three hits, two of them against Valdes, who pitched five innings.

“(Valdes) He’s a tremendous pitcher. He never threw the same pitches against the same batsman. “Everybody knows how hard he is to hit…he throws a lot of breaking pitches and then he throws you an 80 (mph) fastball, but it looks like 95,” Statia said.

“We’re not hitting on time and that’s what happened, but that’s part of baseball,” said Pilot, whose team had the same problem in losses against Panama and Venezuela.

Despite offensive inconsistency in the Caribbean tournament, Curaçao will have an opportunity to do themselves justice against Puerto Rico.

“The match with Puerto Rico will be very important,” Proffer said. “Today was a game too, but we lost, but tomorrow we will bring everything because that game is life or death.”