SPAIN – No. 3 ranked Marlins Puerto Cruz will battle El Llano in this week’s BaseballdeWorld Spanish League Matchup of the Week. Both squads opened the season last week with sweeps to enter this weekend showdown with unblemished 2-0 records.

The Marlins pounded San Inazio Bilbao in a pair of lopsided victories this past weekend to begin their quest for a fifth consecutive league title. Juan Carlos Macias and Daniel Sanchez collected eight of the teams’ 21 hits in a 17-2 season-opening win while Daniel Martinez homered and tallied four RBIs.

The hit parade for the Tenerife-based club continued in a 10-0 win over San Inazio Bilbao in the second game. Richard Montiel drove in three runs while Martinez (2B, 3B, 2 RBIs) continued his high-octane production at the plate. The Marlins outhit San Inazio Bilbao 32-4 in the weekend series.

The Marlins 1-2 pitching tandem of right-hander Leslie Nacar and left-hander Ivan Granados opened the new season in grand fashion with a pair of sterling outings. Nacar (1-0) pitched one-hit ball in a five-inning complete game win while Granados (1-0) fanned seven and allowed three hits in seven scoreless innings.

Last season, the dynamic duo combined to win 22 games with 204 strikeouts in 209 innings.

El Llano blanked Pamplona twice last week to open the season after a shaky offseason that saw the team lose several key performers from a year ago. However, the new starting pitching tandem of Juan De Leon and Ruben Fente looked awfully good in their 2009 debuts a week ago.

De Leon (1-0) scattered four hits in seven scoreless innings in a 7-0 win in the season opener last week. Fente (1-0) followed with an even better outing in another 7-0 victory allowing a pair of hits in eight innings with nine strikeouts.

Offensively, Roberto Noriega remains the main man for El Llano at the plate. The reigning league batting champion had two hits and drove in a pair of runs last weekend in the opening game of the new season. Other top hitters includes Gabriel Sanso, Emilio Perez, Javier Peyrote and Marco Trillo.

The inability to win key series against the Marlins, FC Barcelona, and Sant Boi a year ago prevented El Llano from finishing even higher than their fourth-place standing. If Noriega and company are to contend for a league championship in 2009, El Llano must do a better job of securing wins against the league’s top teams.

UPCOMING GAMES:

SATURDAY, MARCH 21
EL LLANO – MARLINS PUERTO CRUZ (DH)
SAN INAZIO BILBAO – FC BARCELONA
VILADECANS – BÉISBOL NAVARRA

SUNDAY, MARCH 22
SANT BOI – ASTROS (DH)
PAMPLONA – HALCONES DE VIGO (DH)
SAN INAZIO BILBAO – FC BARCELONA
VILADECANS – BÉISBOL NAVARRA

SPANISH LEAGUE

Photo courtesy of Angel Piva

Tags: Matchup of the Week, Spain