Aruba Wins Senior League Championship
Aruba ended Bangor’s run at the Senior League World Series, riding the five-hit pitching of Shawn Duinkerk to an 8-1 win over the Maine District 3 representatives in the world championship game before 3,000 fans at Mansfield Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Duinkerk, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound righthander, struck out five batters and walked just two during an economical 78-pitch performance. He was the better pitcher, his pitch count kept down by a five-pitch third inning and a four-pitch fourth that helped him stay well under the Senior League single-game limit of 95 pitches.
Aruba, 5-1 in tournament play, broke the game open with five runs in the top of the seventh, the rally highlighted by a two-run double to left by Juan Carlos Moncio and a two-run homer to left by Chadwick Tromp.
When Bangor got runners aboard, the Aruba defense played flawlessly and turned three double plays, the last one to end the game after Hartley had hit a one-out single in the bottom of the seventh.
The title was the first at the Senior League level for Aruba, which like Bangor was part of the tournament’s 2009 field.
Read inning-by-inning plays at BangorDailyNews.com.
Congratulations to all the players on the Aruba team!