Three homers lead the Dominican Republic to first U-23 Baseball World Cup win

The Dominican Republic beat Germany 8-4 in the first game of the second day of Group A play at Estadio Yaquis in Ciudad Obregon.

After its first game was postponed due to rain on Thursday night, the Dominican team wasted no time jumping in front on Friday morning, taking a 2-0 lead on a Francis Florentino second-inning home run.  

Germany answered with a run in the bottom of the second, but the Dominican Republic built an insurmountable lead in the fourth. The inning began with a walk to Florentin. Lizardo Quiñones and Albert Suarez followed with base hits. The big blow in the inning was a two-run homer from clean-up hitter Sandro Fabian that increased the lead to 6-1.

"This team knows how to play together. The ones who have success know that this happens thanks to the support of everybody else," commented Fabian at the end of the game.

Down 7-1 in the bottom of the fifth, Germany's bats finally got going. Alexander Schmidt produced his team's first hit of the day, a single, and that was immediately followed by a three-run blast off the bat of 18-year-old Lou Helmig bringing Germany to within three at 7-4.  That was as close as they would come, however, as Christiá Montes De Oca came in and did not allow another hit to the German squad.

In the end, five Dominican pitchers combined to hold Germany to just two hits.

The game featured a number of base on balls - 16 in all - and five errors between the two teams. Quiñones and Luis Guzmán led the Dominican Republic with two hits each.  Dominican catcher Fraudy Reynoso added a solo home run in the top of the seventh to cap the scoring.

Germany will look to earn its first victory on Saturday morning when it faces off with the other European team in Group A, the Czech Republic. The Dominican Republic will play under the lights on Saturday night against the host nation, Mexico, in what is sure to be an exciting affair.

"Tomorrow's game is going to be like any other game," commented manager Ramon Genao. "We are going to play hard, do our best to make the people proud back home."