MIAMI (AP) — Austin Wells hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning to end the game in tournament rout regulation and the Dominican Republic beat South Korea 10-0 on Friday night to advance to the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic.
The Dominicans will seek a second title and first since 2013 in a semifinal matchup against either the United States or Canada in Miami on Sunday. The Dominicans went 5-0 in this tournament, outscoring their opponents 51-10 with a .312 batting average and tying Mexico’s WBC record set in 2009 with 14 home runs.
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Fernando Tatis Jr. drove in two runs and drove in 11 runs in the championship game. He is tied for third in a single WBC tournament, trailing only Masataka Yoshida of Japan in 2023 (13 points) and Wladimir Balentien of the Netherlands in 2017 with 12 points.
Wells, who came on as a defensive substitute in the top of the seventh inning, reached down and drove in Hyun Jun So’s chip shot from the front of the second deck in the right. Wells was born in Arizona to a mother of Dominican descent.
He hit the Dominican Republic’s second walk-off homer of the tournament after Juan Soto’s hit gave the Dominican Republic a 12-1 victory over the Netherlands.
Winner Christopher Sanchez allowed three runs in the second inning and four in the third, striking out eight in five two-hit innings.
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The South Korean team lost in the 2006 semi-finals and the 2009 finals, and was eliminated in the first round three times in a row this year before reaching the quarter-finals this year.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. scored the game’s first run against loser Hyun Jin Ryu, sliding a header into the left field corner on Junior Caminero’s double. Julio Rodriguez followed with a grounder and a single by Tatis.
Soto scored on Guerrero’s double in the four-run fourth inning, hooking catcher Dong Won Park with his arm on a head-first slide.
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