Panama's Francisco
treat
Latin America righthander
Francisco Chiari treats fans to no-hitter in win over Poland
By Mark Rogoff
Panama
Manager Carlos Mosquera believes his team has the pitching to go
deep into the Little League World Series tournament.
He may be right.
Francisco Chiari, whom
he labels as his Number Five pitcher, tossed a no-hitter,
including four and two-thirds perfect innings to start the game,
as Panama (2-0) defeated Poland 9-0 in front of 4,400 at Volunteer
Stadium.
Chiari allowed just
two batters to reach base, a fifth-inning walk to Adrian Florczak
and a sixth-inning base on balls to Dominik Strawiak.
"I am very happy with
the work I did," Chiari said through interpreter Carlos Pagan. "I
thought I could throw harder, but I threw a good game.
"I was in a groove. I
thank my coaches and players for helping me through."
After inducing
Strawiak to ground out to lead off the game, the hard-throwing
righthander struck out six in a row. He fanned 10 overall with his
mother Dixie in the stands yelling words of encouragement.
"She challenged me to
take it easy and be patient with the hitters," Chiari said.
Panama jumped out to a
2-0 lead in the first, beginning with Sergio Rivera's bloop double
to right that scored Eduardo Thomas. Mario Gonzalez then reached
on an error, which advanced Rivera to third. Rivera then scored
when Gonzalez was caught stealing in a perfectly-executed rundown.
Thomas'
two-RBI single in the second extended the lead to 4-0.
In the third, Miguel
Vallejos knocked in Panama's fifth run with a pop-up that fell out
of the reach of Poland first baseman Mateusz Serafin. An inning
later, Bayron Haynes closed out the scoring with an RBI double.
"I am very happy with
the two wins," Mosquera said through Pagan. "I am very happy that
the team is hitting because in the Latin America regional they
didn't hit as well.
"We're very motivated.
The kids are very happy."
Said Rivera with Pagan
as interpreter: "I have no words to describe what is happening.
I'm on cloud nine."
Arkadiusz Panasiuk
came close to getting Poland's first base hit of the game and the
tourney. The catcher laced a liner to center field that Jose
Montano had to dive for to catch, narrowly getting his glove
between the ball and the grass.
Poland head coach
Andrzej Petrzak praised his players for their effort, despite
falling to 0-2 in Pool C play and escaping a mercy-rule ending in
the fourth frame.
"I know all my players
game everything they had, and that is all that counts," he said
through interpreter Beata Kaszuba. "The players were happy to play
all six innings."
Poland closes out pool
play with a tilt against Ottawa, Ontario Tuesday afternoon.
The Panama kids next
face Chinese Taipei, Taiwan as they gun for first place in Pool C.
Mosquera knows it's pitching and defense that will lead them to
victory.
"I wanted to have all
pitchers ready to face Taiwan," he said, when asked about starting
Chiari against Poland. "We will try to have a defense against
them.".
Click here
for box scores
