Day 4 & 5
Thursday morning was our sightseeing time in the capital, Santo Domingo. Our games were in Boca Chica, so we had to have all of our baseball gear with us in order to go straight to the fields after sightseeing. We spent an hour shopping at the “Straw Market” where the players bartered down prices for souvenirs and gifts that you will see soon. We ate lunch at “Pizza House”, an inexpensive pizza joint. The guys really enjoyed lunch, especially the fact that they had a bunch of pizza. After lunch we spent a short time exploring a monument dedicated to the man who gained independence for the Dominican Republic from Haiti.
We then headed back to Boca Chica. Our driver Kiko wouldn’t tell us where our games were at except for that they were together. The games ended up being at “Baseball City”, which is where the Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, and the Arizona Diamondbacks all have fields and dorm complexes. We played at the Arizona complex against some local teams.
The 18U team dominated their opponent with a 19-0 mercy rule victory after 7 innings. The Dominican pitchers were serving up meat to the 18U players and they took some hacks. A large handful of them had several hits and scored multiple runs. Jacob Hoffman put in several good innings and was relieved by Bryan Sandstrom.
The 16U’s also won their game convincingly with starting pitcher Justin Boyd leading the way. He was later relieved by Sam Langford and Chris Hoefer who each put in a few solid innings of work. Hitting was more consistent for the team than it had been earlier in the week. So progress is being made.
Friday, we left the SCORE Hotel at 8:30 for La Romana where we caught a boat to Catalina Island. The players enjoyed laying on the beach, snorkeling, swimming, and the buffett for a good part of the day. Some of them did some more shopping at the Catalina Market, which rounds out most of the shopping opportunities they have this week.
Tomorrow we buy and distribute food for a sugarcane village. We ask you to pray with us that God would minister to those people we meet and that we would be impacted by them.
