Day 2
Today was a very busy day in the DR. We started the day off with a trip to La Romana to visit an all-girl orphanage which houses about 100 girls. There were some faces we recognized from our trip last year and plenty of new ones. The players spent time distributing toys and other gift items to the girls, playing games with them, and just loving on them. In our devotions last night, one of the things Brian Peterson spoke about is how we are called to “defend the cause of the weak and fatherless” (Psalm 82:3-4) and today our players lived that out. Before we left, Coach Bethke shared his testimony with the girls and our missionary translator, Hugo, shared the Gospel. On our way back to the SCORE Hotel, Hugo translated his presentation of the Gospel in English for our players. God totally took control of the moment and one of our players committed his life to Christ on the bus ride. So join us in praising God for that and keep praying for us this week. God is moving and we cannot wait to see what else He will do both in us and here in the Dominican Republic.
In the afternoon, our teams headed out to San Pedro de Macoris to play some baseball. San Pedro is a baseball city, 110%. They have the greatest number of players in the MLB of any city in the world. It is home to the likes of Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano, Robinson Cano to name a few. The 16U team played a 7 inning game and lost by one run 6-5. Josh Fisher led the way on the mound and was relieved by Brandon Person in the 6th. The opposing pitcher was bringing some heat, keeping us on our heels, but we did start to get the bats going late in the game. The 18U team played a full nine inning game and fell to their opponent 12-6. Garrett Picha went 7 innings on the mound mixing great off-speed pitches with his fastball to keep hitters off-balance. Jordon Grangruth entered in relief in the 8th. Bret Bitow and Jacob Hoffman’s bats led the way with a double apiece. Interestingly enough, the team the 18U guys played was a team that our 18U team played last year and gave their red game uniforms to. So today it was Reality Sports vs. Reality Sports with both the Dominican players in red and our guys in red!
Wednesday brings us doubleheaders for each team in the morning and time at a sugarcane village in the afternoon. Your continued support in prayer is greatly appreciated.
