Undefeated Barranquilla Caimanes took the field against the Fargo-Moorhead Red Hawks (1-1) to open Day 3 of the Baseball Champions League Americas.
The hosts Yucatan Leones (0-2) will face Granma Alazanes (1-1) in the night game
All four teams can still aim at the final with one game to go in round-robin play. Barranquilla would secure a spot in the final by winning the day's opener. The result would open the possibility of a three-way tie in second place. If Fargo won, the Leones would be eliminated, and a Granma's win in the final game would create a three-way tie for first place.
The WBSC Team Quality Balance (TQB) will serve as the tie-breaker rule in case of three-way ties. It is calculated as runs scored per innings played on offence minus runs allowed per innings played on defence.
Barranquilla @ Fargo-Moohead PLAY BY PLAY 20:00 Granma @ Yucatan
Fargo handed the ball to former Major League Baseball (MLB) reliever Ashton Goudeau.
Barranquilla started 23-year-old right-hander Santiago Florez, who spent the 2023 season at the A level with MLB's Pittsburgh Pirates.
Fargo took a quick lead. First baseman Roy Morales hit a one-out single in the bottom of the first and advanced on a walk. With two outs, second baseman Manny Boscan hit an RBI single to right field to put the RedHawks ahead.
Florez allowed the second run on back-to-back walks and left for Carlos Ocampo. Centre fielder Alec Olund singled on his first pitch to extend Fargo's lead to 4-0.
Ocampo hit Sam Dexter to load the bases again. Left fielder Dillon Thomas, the tenth Fargo batter of the frame, cleared the bases with a double to the gap in right-centre.
Morales added a base hit to make it 8-0.
Barranquilla reached base in the top of the third as Goudeau allowed back-to-back two-out walks. The right-hander retired Carlos Arroyo on a fly to centre to end the game.
Chris Herrmann homered to lead off the bottom of the third and extend Fargo's lead to 9-0.
Left-hander Oddy Nuňez replaced Ocampo on Barranquilla's mound with two outs in the bottom of the third.
Third baseman Darwin Pomare got the first Caimanes hit in the top of the fourth. With runners at first and second, catcher Pabel Manzanero drove Goudeau's fifth pitch over the left field wall and put Barranquilla on the scoreboard.
The RedHawks got out of the inning thanks to a double play.
In the botton half of the frame Barranquilla got out of a bases loaded jam. Nuňez struck out Herrmann and left for Jesus Fandiňo, who got Alec Olund swinging to end the at-bat.
