If one of the most productive players represents how smart Curacao can be in the Little League World Series, it’s possibly Davey-Jay Rijke.
In Curacao’s 2-0 win over a talented Nicaraguan team on Wednesday, Davey-Jay allowed just two hits and retired 14 in 5-1/3 innings. He controlled a great safe throw, a triple in the sixth inning and scored the safe run. of your team
Not only that, but with Curacao just 1-0 and Nicaragua with runners in scoring position in the fourth inning, Davey-Jay struggled to catch a gap that gave the impression between the mound and the first baseline. When he returned to the canoe, his companions assaulted him, one of them threw a jacket over his shoulders.
Photo: AP
“You have to keep the guys smiling, just let them have fun,” Zaino Everett, the team’s manager, later said. “There’s a lot of tension in the game to be like that. “
Davey-Jay works fast, but he also stays calm. The hitters he faces don’t seem to remain as calm compared to his 120 km/h fastball, which comes as fast as a 157 km/h pitch from a major league mound. His pace is also annoying for hitters. As soon as his foot touches the rubber, Davey-Jay’s liquidation begins.
“I feel good, my arm feels good, my arm is perfect,” Davey-Jay said through an interpreter. “That’s what Shohei Ohtani [a two-way star of the MLB Los Angeles Angels] looks like, so I try to be like him. “
Photo: AP
The appeal of Curacao are performances like Davey-Jay’s, though remarkable, that are so uncommon.
Curacao is located off the coast of Venezuela and is small, 444 km2, with a population of just over 150,000 people.
This year is the fourteenth in the country for South Williamsport, adding a 2004 championship with a team that featured prominent major leaguers like Jonathan Schoop and Jurickson Profar in a win over undefeated California.
One of the benefits of the island of Curaçao is the state of its fields, and this means poor condition. Baseball fields don’t have the fancy playing surface that grass provides for indoor fields, and they end up with chops and rocks, forcing indoor play. fields to deal with the common bad jumps from balls to the ground.
“That’s why our infielders have softer hands,” Andy Martina, a Little League World Series announcer for Curacao fans, told the news website Deporte Aktivo.
They had to face the winners of the Aguadulce region of the Little Leagues of Panama Aguadulce Cabezera yesterday, a complicated team. Panama would possibly be good, but they are sure to face a team that will play well in Curacao, represented through the Little Leagues of Pabao, the winners of the Caribbean region.
“We’ve trained so long and so hard to get here, because this year since the [COVID-19] pandemic has kept us from coming for the last two years,” Everett said. “We’re coming back, doing a chore and making Curacao proud of ourselves. “
The winners of the Curacao-Panama match will face Taiwan on Tuesday morning, Taiwan time.