With six and a half innings in the books Wednesday afternoon, it appeared that the winless Colombia baseball squad would finally record a victory at the Pan-American Games as they were leading Puerto Rico 7-1.
Puerto Rico had other ideas.
Puerto Rico stunned Colombia by scoring five runs in the seventh and then striking twice more in the ninth to walk-off over Colombia 8-7.
The loss went to Colombia’s Cristian Mendoza who surrendered a walk-off two-run home run to Puerto Rico right fielder Anthony Garcia, who homered twice and recorded six RBI on the day. Garcia got three hits in all, which pushes his tournament average to .438, the sixth-best at the Pan-American Games. Puerto Rico also got a multi-hit day from Gabriel Robles who rapped two hits and scored once. Jose Ayala hurled three perfect frames to earn the win. He was crucial in holding down Colombia while his teammates completed their shocking comeback.
Colombia knocked Puerto Rico starter Tomas Santiago out in the third inning. They scored three times in the first inning and struck twice more in the third to send Santiago to the showers. They capitalized on the lone Puerto Rico error, by third baseman Jeffry Dominguez, scoring two unearned runs off of reliever Ramesis Rosa, the only blemish by the Puerto Rico bullpen which gave up just the two unearned runs over 6.2 innings. Colombia was led by two-hit days from Jonathan Lozada and Daniel Contreras, while they received multiple RBI from Steve Brown, Lozada, and Harold Ramirez. Six of Colombia’s seven runs came on home runs. Ramirez cracked a first-inning two-run shot while Brown blasted a two-run bomb in the third. Lozada added another two-run dinger in the sixth. The other Colombia RBI came from Hector Asuna.
6.2 innings was how long Colombia starter Juan Carlos Corpas lasted before his lack of control (six walks) cost him in the seventh inning. He gave up just three hits but the multitude of walks helped Puerto Rico touch him for three runs. Corpas left still leading 7-1 but his bullpen couldn’t hold it. Neither Javier Garcia or Ronald Ramirez could record an out, as Garcia allowed one inherited runner to score and left with one runner that Corpas was responsible and another runner that Garcia was responsible on base. Ramirez allowed yet another baserunner and then was victimized by Anthony Garcia’s first homer, a monster grand slam to make the game 7-6. Antonio Salazar got the final out of the seventh and the first out of the eighth inning before Mendoza took over. He allowed two hits, one of which was the walk-off blast by Garcia.
Puerto Rico leapfrogs the USA in the standings, jumping into second place with this huge win. They remain just one game behind the unbeaten Canada squad. They are 3-1 in the tournament. The top four teams make the knockout stage. Colombia was already eliminated entering the game and fell to 0-5 at the Pan-American Games.