Cuba Reigns as 2009 Rotterdam World Port Champion

The finals of the Rotterdam World Port Tournament on Sunday afternoon proved to be a perfect mirror image of the entire twelve-day event, with Cuba tattooing Dutch pitching for an easy 9-3 victory. Cuba's top two hurlers--Miguel Alfredo González (Habana Province) and Maikel Folch (Ciego de Avila)--both stymied Netherlands hitters most of the afternoon. The only significant Dutch uprising came with a two-run homer by Sydney de Jong off González in the top of the sixth. Folch allowed a single scratch hit over the final four frames to pick up the championship victory. Cuba's attack was led by catcher Eriel Sánchez (3 for 5 with a two-run homer in the fifth) and first baseman Ariel Borrero (also 3 for 5 with two RBI). The title was Cuba's fourth straight in this event (following wins in 2001, 2003 and 2007).

Complete coverage of (and commentary on) the 2009 World Port Tournament is still available at http://www.baseballdecuba.com/rotterdam2009.asp

Cuba (represented by the Cuba B second-string national team roster) dominated the tournament from start to finish, losing only a meaningless final pool-play game to Japan and suffering a tie match with Chinese Taipei (played on a day when rainouts forced three scheduled games and thus prevented extra-inning play). The runner-up Netherlands was represented by essentially the same ball club that embarrassed the Dominican Republic big leaguers in the March World Baseball Classic, while Japan and Taiwan fielded national university all-star ball clubs.

Below is a summary of tournament individual awards, statistics and final standings:

Individual Player Awards

Most Valuable Player: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba)

Top Pitcher: Maikel Folch (Cuba)

Leading Hitter: Adonis García (Cuba)

Home Run King: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba)

Best Rookie: Nick Urbanus (Netherlands)

Most Popular Player: Nick Urbanus (Netherlands)

World Port Tournament Final Standings (End of Round Robin Games)

Team, Record (Runs For and Against as Tie-Breaker), Point Totals

Cuba 7-1-1 (53-16) 15 points

Netherlands 4-5 (31-42) 8 points

Chinese Taipei 3-5-1 (33-36) 7 points

Japan 3-6 (21-44) 6 points

Finals: Cuba 9-17-1, The Netherlands 3-6-1

Top Ten Tournament Hitters (End of Round Robin Games)

Adonis García (Cuba) .500 (30 ABs, 15 Hits, 6 Runs)

Bas de Jong (Netherlands) .440

Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba) .429 (.657 slugging average, 2 homers, 12 RBI)

Ariel Borrero (Cuba) .414 (.655 slugging average)

Eriel Sánchez (Cuba) .367 (.567 slugging average)

Eugene Kingsale (Netherlands) .344

Bryan Englehardt (Netherlands) .333

Sydney de Jong (Netherlands) .324

Leonys Martin (Cuba) .300

Raily Legito (Netherlands) .300

Yorbis Borroto (Cuba) .300

Batting Leaders (End of Round Robin Games)

Batting Average: Adonis García (Cuba) .500

Slugging Average: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba) .657

On-Base Percentage: Adonis García (Cuba) .545

Home Runs: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba) 2

RBI: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba) 12

Stolen Bases: Yohei Yamamoto (Japan) 5

Base Hits: Adonis García (Cuba) 15

Runs Scored: Ariel Borrero (Cuba) 8

Doubles: Eriel Sánchez (Cuba) 6

Total Bases: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba) 23

Top Ten Tournament Pitchers (End of Round Robin Games)

Michiel van Kampen (Netherlands) .000 ERA (7.1 innings)
Chen-Hua Lin (Chinese Taipei) 0.00 ERA (7.0 innings)
Diegomar Markwell (Netherlands) 0.57 ERA (15.2 innings)
Ryota Takayama (Japan) 1.04 (8.2 innings)
Ching-Ming Wang (Chinese Taipei) 1.13 ERA 8.0 innings)
Yadier Pedroso (Cuba) 1.29 ERA (7.0 innings)
Syogo Suenaga (Japan) 1.33 ERA (20.1 innings)
Yaumier Sánchez (Cuba) 1.50 ERA (12.0 innings)
 

Pitching Leaders (End of Round Robin Games)

Wins-Losses: Miguel Alfredo González (Cuba) 2-0

Wins-Losses: Yaumier Sánchez (Cuba) 2-0

Wins-Losses: Rob Cordemans (Netherlands) 2-0

ERA Pct.: Maikel Folch (Cuba) 0.00 (14.0 innings)

Innings Pitched: Syogo Suenaga (Japan) 20.1

Opponents Batting Average: Miguel Alfredo González (Cuba) .083

Game Appearances: Chen-Hua Lin (Chinese Taipei) 5

Games Started: Chih-Lung Huang (Chinese Taipei) 3

Strikeouts: Yaumier Sánchez (Cuba) 16

Strikeouts (per 9 innings): Yaumier Sánchez (Cuba) 12.0

Walks: Yaumier Sánchez (Cuba) 11

Shutouts: Syogo Suenaga (Japan) 1

Complete Games: Syogo Suenaga (Japan) 2

Note: USA Baseball (fourth-place finisher at Rotterdam in 2007) was invited to this year's event but elected not to send an American team.