DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Aruba players representing the Caribbean region play a game together at the Grand Slam Parade picnic at Penn College on Tuesday. It is only the second time Aruba has made it to the World Series, winning the Caribbean title.
After winning the Caribbean Regional in late July, the Aruba Center Little League team was greeted by a crowd of over a thousand people upon its return home.
In a country where Little League Baseball means everything, the excitement over this historic achievement was palpable.
The team from Santa Cruz, Aruba, had secured a ticket to Williamsport for the second time in the country’s history – the first since 2011. The community’s reaction was appropriate for the team’s great success, which wants to make its country proud even far from home.
“This is a very special moment for us after 13 years,” said Aruba manager Elwin Rincones before the event. “We always had that No. 2 team and every year we lost by one or two points to Curacao and the Dominican Republic. It was painful every time, but we continue to grow, make progress and this year we knew we had a very good team.”
In the highly competitive Caribbean region, Aruba had to show some weaknesses and recently missed out on a place in the 2022 regional final by just one win.
Teams like Pabao (Curacao), Pariba (Curacao), Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico make each round a challenge, with each country taking the sport very seriously and even producing MLB talent from time to time.
“I believe that our region is very competitive because everyone who comes here wants to win,” said Rincones. “Puerto got free reign this year, but we usually have four or five very competitive teams. So we have to do things right.”
“Baseball is not a game of perfection. It’s actually a game of imperfection, so the one who makes the fewest mistakes wins, and against certain forces in Little League Baseball, you can’t make any mistakes.” he added.
Both Curacao teams are great examples of the talent this region has brought to the tournament over the years. Pabao has produced three World Series runners-up since 2019. They are a testament to the region and a team Aruba has encountered several times during its regional run.
Since Curaçao is also hosting the tournament, it will not be easy to defeat them.
But instead of throwing everything at the powerhouse, Aruba decided to save their best players for later in the tournament. And even then, they managed to keep it close, losing the first game 3-1 and the second 4-3.
“If we had played with our big pitchers, it would have been a different game,” said Rincones. “But our plan was to get into the semifinals with a win against St. Martin and then give it our all in the semifinals.”
After a 10-0 win against St. Martin and thus the continuation of their winning streak, they met Pariba in the semi-finals.
Aruba started slowly, trailing by six runs early on. But in front of a crowd of over 4,000 fans – many of whom were cheering against them – they didn’t feel the pressure and rallied back by five runs in the next inning.
“Then it was a whole new game,” said Rincones as he described it.
From there, Aruba beat Pariba 7-2, defeated them 12-8 in front of their home crowd and carried that momentum into the final, where they defeated the Dominican Republic 2-0.
So far, the country of Aruba has yet to win a game in this tournament, but the team hopes that will change on Wednesday when Aruba faces Mexico at 1 p.m. at Volunteer Stadium.
“It will be a tough competition,” said Rincones. “We have to play well.”
