Domican Republic pulls away from Nicaragua in dominant win at World Baseball Classic

[p]Five batters on the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/dominican-republic/tAGs4ije/"]Dominican Republic[/a] squad had at least two hits, with eight of their 12 batters recording at least one hit. [/p][p]Relief pitcher [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/dominguez-seranthony/2TN0WreP/"]Seranthony Dominguez[/a] got the win. The DR bullpen tossed 8.2 shutout innings, giving up just three hits. [/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/nicaragua/Ee99H5bE/"]Nicaragua[/a] will face the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/netherlands/S4VCKAKf/"]Netherlands[/a] (0-1) on March 7th at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. The Dominican Republic will take on the Netherlands (0-1) at the same time, but a day later, on March 8th. [/p][embed guid="69e3397b-1b3d-4066-8167-58f087a42533" url="https://x.com/WBCBaseball/status/2030125286134522144?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][h2]Recap and highlights[/h2][p]The first five innings of the game were a nail-biter as Nicaragua looked poised to bring about possibly the biggest upset in World Baseball Classic history. [/p][p]Before recording three straight strikeouts, Dominican starter [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/sanchez-cristhoper/CK4BYbns/"]Christopher Sanchez[/a] gave up a single to put runners on first and second with no outs. [/p][p][b]Nicaragua's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/munguia-ismael/xCtRXPRh/"]Ismael Munguia[/a] would hit an RBI-single to centerfield to score Chase Dawson from second to go up 1-0. [/b][/p][embed guid="b98e8319-9a28-4fc5-bdca-e183bb26c6f5" url="https://x.com/WBCBaseball/status/2030075165485244792?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]But of course, the bats for the Dominican Republic came out firing right out the gate in the bottom half of the first inning.[/p][p][b]After a single from [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/tatis-fernando-jr/Ic5vhveI/"]Fernando Tatis[/a] Jr., [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/marte-ketel/bF1P3Th4/"]Ketel Marte[/a] would bring him home on an RBI double to tie it up 1-1. [/b][/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/soto-juan/6o40D739/"]Juan Soto[/a] would ground out to move Marte over to third before [b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/guerrero-jr-vladimir/QJ6EIGgH/"]Vladimir Guerrero[/a] Jr. would do the same to bring him home to go up 2-1 before the end of the inning. [/b][/p][p]Tatis would finish the game 2-for-3 with three runs and two walks. Marte finished 1-for-3 with one run and RBI. Soto 2-for-4 with one run, one walk, and one strikeout. Vladdy 1-for-4 with three RBI. [/p][embed guid="b39b8220-7e9a-493b-a9e2-6113e5bd53b8" url="https://x.com/WBCBaseball/status/2030079292990710039?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]But Nicaragua wouldn't let up after they tacked on two more runs in the second. [/p][p][b]The first coming from a [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/zamora-freddy/23eadmVD/"]Freddy Zamora[/a] an RBI double that tied it 2-2, followed by a a Dawson RBI single to go up 3-2 after Soto bobbled the ball in left field.[/b][/p][p]Unfortunately for Nicaragua, that's where the runs would end for the remainder of the game. [/p][embed guid="6fa24969-4259-41e4-9a6d-1fbc348b6836" url="https://x.com/WBCBaseball/status/2030081345708282096?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]After two scoreless innings, the DR began to unleash their bats on the Nicaragua bullpen. [/p][p][b]After an RBI single from [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/rodriguez-julio/bVFiCHiF/"]Julio Rodriguez[/a] to tie it 3-3 in the bottom of the third, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/tampa-bay-rays/GCHgI4hp/"]Tampa Bay Rays[/a]' young star [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/caminero-junior/lfKA0tS0/"]Junior Caminero[/a] put the DR up 5-3 with a two-run home run - the first of his WBC career and the first for DR in the tournament. [/b][/p][p]J-Rod finished the game 3-for-5 with three RBI and one run. Caminero finished 2-for-4 with one home run, one run, and two RBI.[/p][embed guid="75d4d75b-2a61-423f-9890-dba12aaf0592" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPmdU-cN1ew" social-type="youtube" /][p]From there, the DR would put up an extra seven runs across in the next two innings, six runs in the seventh inning alone. [/p][p]After a Vladdy RBI single in the sixth, J-Rod would continue to rake at the plate with his first home run of the tournament in the seventh to put DR up 7-3. In the same inning, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/cruz-oneil/M7B0V3OP/"]Oneil Cruz[/a] would launch a three-run home run as well to make it 10-3. [/p][p]Vladdy and J-Rod both would bring in two more runs in the same inning to eventually put the game to the final score of 12-3.[/p][embed guid="f705a304-3524-4cce-a332-b55cd741f038" url="https://x.com/WBCBaseball/status/2030117217799487688?s=20" social-type="twitter" /]