On paper the Dominican Republic was one of the favorites to win this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC). With a team including superstars like Hanley Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Pedro Martinez, it should’ve been a formality for the Dominicans to advance out of the tournament’s first round. Yet twice wasn’t nice as an underdog yet very resilient Netherlands beat los quisqueyanos to eliminate them from the WBC.Last night’s game was an absolute nail-biter that was decided in extra innings. The Dominicans broke the scoreless game in the 11th inning after Jose Reyes scored on a fielding error by Eugene Kingsdale. Facing elimination, the Dutch rallied to score two times in the bottom of the eleventh. An RBI single Kingsdale led to him advancing to third base on an error, and then scoring the winning run of a Sidney de Jong bloop single.
As to be expected, the mood in the Dominican clubhouse was grim:
“These guys, they did it,” David Ortiz said. “They beat us. I tell you, the whole world is shocked now. Even in Japan, they’re like ‘What the heck?’ in Japanese”…Image- FOX Sports
“Oh, God, thank God I don’t have to go back home for a while,” Ortiz said. “I’m telling you right now, in the Dominican, there had to be a blackout right now”…
“Of course, we’re disappointed,” (Dominican manager Felipe) Alou said. “We have been called the Republic of Baseball.”
Online Sources- New York Times, ESPN.com, Reuters, boston.com
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