Detroit Tigers Sign Team Nicaragua’s Duque Hebbert Following Stellar Ninth Inning

Despite logging a loss at the World Baseball Classic, Duque Hebbert is still a winner.

The 21-year-old Nicaraguan baseball player’s Team Nicaragua lost to the Dominican Republic during pool-play at the WBC on Monday, but he struck out MLB superstars Juan SotoJulio Rodriguez and Rafael Devers in the ninth inning of Nicaragua’s 6-1 loss and earned himself a contract with the Detroit Tigers in the process.

Duque HebbertOne of the Tigers’ scouts, Luis Molina, found the right-hander, who’s listed at 5-foot-9, as he was leaving LoanDepot Park, asked him a handful of questions and signed him to a minor league contract, said Nicaraguan Athletics Federation press officer Carlos Alfaro Leon.

An announcement was made on the bus in front of the whole team.

Hebbert, who also gave up a double to the hot-hitting Manny Machado in his lone inning of work, used mostly low 90s sinkers, mid-80s changeups and low-90s sliders to strike out the side. Team Nicaragua manager Sandor Guido called it “extraordinary.”

“He showed what he is made of,” Guido said through an interpreter. “When you have will, when you have heart, you can do very good things.”

Teofimo Lopez to Defend Lightweight Champion Title vs. George Kambosos Jr.

Teofimo Lopez is going on the defensive

The 23-year-old Honduran American boxer will make his first title defense as the undisputed lightweight champion against George Kambosos Jr. on June 19 at Miami’s loanDepot Park, Triller Fight Club has announced.

Teofimo Lopez

The card will be co-headlined by a women’s super middleweight bout between Franchon Crews-Dezurn and Elin Cederroos, with all four world championship belts on the line.

Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs), 23, who became the undisputed champion last year by taking four belts from Vasiliy Lomachenko, is No. 5 in the ESPN pound-for-pound rankings.

He’s No. 1 in the ESPN lightweight rankings, while Kambosos (19-0, 10 KOs), the mandatory IBF challenger from Australia, is ranked 10th.

Triller is a relative newcomer to the boxing promotion business. The tech company made headlines in November by promoting the exhibition between former champions Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr., and in February it won the right to promote the mandatory defense of Lopez, one of boxing’s rising stars.