The national baseball team, which is preparing to represent the country in the upcoming Central American and Caribbean Games, won three of the four games played against the Chapines.
By: Carlos Hernandez/Fedebeis.
Guatemala. The El Salvador National Baseball Team won 3 games out of 4 in the International Blank Series, which ended this Sunday at the Enrique “Trapo” Torrebiarte diamond, against his counterpart from Guatemala.
The blue and white team is included in the Effort and Glory program of the National Sports Institute of El Salvador (INDES).
The national team, led by the experienced Nicaraguan manager Jorge Luis Avellán, continues its preparation process to represent the country at the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games San Salvador 2023.
The Cuscatleco team comes from a tour of Nicaragua, where they played several preparation games against professional teams from that country, as well as participating in the Central American Major Baseball tournament.
In the International Series against the chapines, El Salvador added victories with scores of 16 runs by 5, 2-0 and 6-0. The only defeat was very close, with a score of 3-2, in the opening clash of the confrontation. In that game, the offensive participation of José “Chepa” Rivas stood out, who shot a two-run home run, to equalize the actions at that time.
After the loss, the Salvadoran bats rumbled for the rest of the series and the team pitching did its job. In the second game, El Salvador defeated their rival with a wide score of 16 runs to 5. The stellar left-hander Nelson Alfaro imposed his status as ace in the national rotation to take the victory, while the young Jefferson Gutiérrez took over.
In the third game, Rafael Mena and Jhonny Villatoro combined from the mound to lead the 2-0 win by shutout, a game in which the locals barely hit one hit. The series ended on Sunday with a 6-0 victory, in which the performances of starter José Roca and reliever Adrián Jiménez stood out, who limited their rivals to two hits.
Manager Avellán had Wilfredo Jiménez, Jason Flores, Emerson Bonilla, Edwin Argueta and José Márquez in the series, who rotated in the outfield; while Melvin Deras, Carlos Cortéz, Benjamín Pocasagre and José Rivas were distributed in the inner box.
Estuardo Guevara was the starting receiver, with the support of the young Juan José Mendizábal. The pitching staff was made up of Héctor Martínez (also played with CF), Adrián Jiménez, Rafael Mena, Nelson Alfaro, José Roca and Jefferson Gutiérrez.