¡Viva Puerto Rico! Latin American squad wins World Series

Defense wins championships?

Don’t tell that to the girls of the ASOFEM Little League from Maunabo, Puerto Rico, who captured the 2008 Senior League Softball World Series title with a 3-2 victory over the U.S. East (West Cumberland, N.J.) despite committing six errors.

Representing Latin America, the victorious All-Stars often atoned for their fielding woes by getting great pitching from lefty Nemesis Vega, who allowed just four hits and one earned run while striking out five in a complete game win.

“She might not be the hardest [throwing] pitcher, but she has the biggest heart,” Latin America manager Carlos Garcia explained of his starter.

Of course, it took offense to win too, and with the game tied 2-2 heading into the bottom half of the final inning, Latin America got just enough.

Leading off the frame, No. 8 hitter Gloria Alvarez lifted a single to right off East pitcher Leanne Miller and moved to second when Vega drew a walk.

Following a sacrifice bunt by leadoff hitter Quetsy Colon that moved the runners to second and third, Latin America’s Annette Cruz delivered the Series-winning run with a fielder’s choice grounder to second that plated Alvarez and started the celebration.

“Wow,” Alvarez said after scoring the game-winner. “[After crossing the plate], I just thought of all the hard work everybody has put in to get here.”

Although there was seemingly a lot of pressure to deliver surrounding Cruz when she stepped into the batter’s box with two on and the game on the line, the All-Star said she was not really thinking about anything other than putting the ball in play.

After delivering, however, Cruz said the pressure was certainly there.

“Now I’m a lot more relaxed,” she said with a laugh. “I was just trying to hit the ball to right field and give us a chance to get one in.”

Despite both teams getting runners in scoring position in the game’s first three innings, neither club got on the board.

East changed that in the top half of the fourth when Shayna Perella singled home Janelle Rodriguez.

Interestingly enough, however, East decided to pull its starting windmiller Kylie Kristovich, who was coming off a one-two-three inning, with the 1-0 lead before he bottom half of the frame and sent Miller to the circle.

Latin America took advantage of the change, as it scored a pair of runs in the fourth thanks to an East fielding error and a Alexandra Berrios RBI base hit.

“Getting those runs was big,” Garcia said. “[Before the rally], I told the girls we would get what we needed in seven [innings].”

In the fifth, the East knotted the game at 2-2 when it got a RBI infield base hit from Alysa Romero that scored Arielle Bruno, but that score proved to be the runner up’s last.

ASOFEM Little League is no stranger to World Series success, as four teams –including this year’s Senior League squad – have won a Little League title in the last decade.

Garcia, in fact, coached a Junior League team consisting of seven players from the ’08 Senior League roster, to a Series title last year.

And, of which one was the better victory, Garcia was quick to answer, “this one.”

“We were very excited about 2007, but this one is even better,” he said.

For Alvarez, who is too old to return to Senior League next year, the 2008 victory was obviously the greatest, but the 16-year old did say she hopes to have kids one day who are in the same position she was on Saturday.

If they do get there, Alvarez said she knows exactly what she will tell them.

“I was there once,” she said, “and I was a champion.”