Caribbean Series championship is a marquee matchup: Dominican Republic vs Venezuela

Jordan McPherson

The championship game of the 2024 Caribbean Series will be a marquee matchup.

The opponents: The Dominican Republic’s Tigres del Licey vs. Venezuela’s Tiburones de la Guaira, with first pitch scheduled for 8 p.m. at Miami’s loanDepot park.

The Dominican Republic advanced to the title game with a 4-1 win over Panama in the semifinals on Thursday, while Venezuela beat Curacao 6-2 to reach the championship. Curacao and Panama will play in the third-place game at 3 p.m. Friday as a prelude to the championship.

The Tigres del Licey are aiming for their second consecutive Serie del Caribe title and their 13th overall. The Tiburones de la Guaira have never won the Caribbean Series.

Venezuela won the first matchup between the teams during the series, winning 3-1 on Feb. 1 in front of an announced crowd of 27,338.

Here’s how both teams performed on Thursday advanced to the finals.

Dominican shuts down Panama’s offense

Panama entered the semifinals as the Cinderella story of the Caribbean Series. The Federales de Chiriqui went 5-1 during the round-robin portion of the tournament and outscored opponents 33-22 in those six games. That included a 3-1 win over the Dominican Republic on Wednesday to close the opening phase of the tournament.

The Dominican Republic got the better of Panama the second time around. The Tigres jumped out to a 4-0 lead and kept Panama off the scoreboard until the eighth inning in the semifinal.

Venezuela players react with Yasiel Puig (31) and Ramon Flores (33) after the two scored runs during the fourth inning of a Caribbean Series Semi Final baseball game against Curacao at loanDepot park in Miami, Florida, on Thursday, February 8, 2024. D.A. Varela/dvarela@miamiherald.com
Venezuela players react with Yasiel Puig (31) and Ramon Flores (33) after the two scored runs during the fourth inning of a Caribbean Series Semi Final baseball game against Curacao at loanDepot park in Miami, Florida, on Thursday, February 8, 2024. D.A. Varela/dvarela@miamiherald.com

Venezuela overcomes early deficit

One day after Venezuela’s Angel Padron tossed the second no-hitter in Caribbean Series history, the Tiburones found themselves without a hit through three innings on Thursday against Curacao, which built a 2-0 lead in that time.

And then the offense erupted.

Venezuela scored three runs in the fourth on a Ramon Flores RBI single and Luis Torrens two-run single to take the lead and then added three more runs in the sixth for good measure on a Flores RBI double and Leonardo Reginatto two-run double.

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