Press Release Canary Baseball and Softball Federation
International Winter Baseball in Europe is a fact
Tenerife was the stage for a tournament that brought together teams from France, Russia, Venezuela and a European team that mixed Austrian, Italian and Spanish players, all of them related to the RFEBS-Atlanta Braves Academy in Puerto de la Cruz.
From France, the region of Langedoc-Roussillon had their All Star team flown over while from a team Russia representing Moscow was present. One of the attractives was the team from Venezuela, to be specific, from Guanare in the western part of the country. The local and Spanish players teamed up with kids from Italy and Austria, all of them in the wake of the Braves European academy, to form a club that was called Europa for the occasion.
The tournament started with a round robin and the semifinals would match first and fourth on one side and second and third on the other, taking the winners to one decisive final game.
Very important for the future of baseball on the Canary Islands was the value the event was given by the local government. The Education, Universities, Culture and Sports Councilor of the Canary Government, Milagros Luis Brito, the Councilor of Sports of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Damaso Arteaga and the Councilor of Sports of the city of Puerto de la Cruz, Juan Carlos Marrero, were all present at the tournament, showing their support for the sports of baseball and the possibilities of Tenerife to become the one place in Europe to play baseball all year long.
Though the Canary Island Federation presided by Gerardo Orozco was responsible for the organization, the support shown by the RFEBS was very relevant as was the presence of its Director of Baseball Juan Carlos Cerdá. Another essential partner for the venture is the Hotel Maritim just across the street from the stadium that with its service and excellent installations keeps all the teams happy.
The umpires Miguel Jimenez, Jose and Gary Pena officiated the nine games and as well as Beatriz Alvarez and Reto Piva who were in charge of the scoring and the statistics, are members of the Canary Island federation staff just as Nestor Perez Jr. who acted as the commissioner of the championship.
The event was brought to life by Nestor Perez Sr., representing the Atlanta Braves in Europe, who was in charge of inviting the teams and gathering all the support necesary for the event.
All the games of the round robin were played very intensely and were interesting for the spectators with the following results:
- Moscow 8 – 12 Guanare Siempre
- Languedoc-Roussillon 10 – 12 Europa
- Guanare Siempre 9 – 4 Languedoc-Roussillon
- Europa 16 – 1 Moscow
- Languedoc-Roussillon 0 – 10 Moscow
- Guanare Siempre 6 – 9 Europa
The Venezuelan team beat Moscow in a thrilling 9-6 game while Europa cruised to a 13-3 win over the French team and all came down to the final that held up to its promise.
Guanare Siempre took the early lead with three hits and one run closing the first inning, and Europa turned the score around in the third when Ramon Varela hit a base sweeping double. Venezuela tied the game in the fifth inning with a 2 RBI triple by Leonel Durán and both teams added a run in the sixth inning to go to the tie breaker after the scoreless seventh inning. After no runs in the eighth inning, Europa scored in the ninth and a double play in the lower half of the inning cleared the way for the championship. Simone Calasso, the winning pitcher, was elected MVP of the final game.
Best batter Juan Pablo Ravelo finished the tournament with a .750 average, Cesar Alvarado became the homerun champion and Eric Paez pitched 8 no earned run innings to lead the hurlers in ERA.
