Nederlands win in extra innings!!!!

DATELINE SAN JUAN, PR. 10 MAR 2009

Holland came back from the brink tonight against the Dominican Republic tonight to win a thrilling, 11 inning barnburner. Eugene Kingsale scored the winning run, two batters after tying it with a single, scoring Sidney De Jong. Kingsale's heroics made up for a fielding error in the top of the 11th that allowed Jose Reyes to score, giving the DR a 1-0 lead.

Wow! What a fun game to watch. Kari and I were the only one rooting for Holland in our section down the left field line. We were miles away from the Dutch contingent behind home plate. We felt like our own little Dutch West Indies colony out there amongst the DR fans. By the end, we had some of the local PR fans sitting around us pulling for the Nederlanders. Now it's on to the final game. I have a feeling those PR fans will be back rooting for the home team.

World Baseball Classic Day 1

After a little exploring the area by car, we headed over to Hiram Bithorn Stadium for day 1 of the World Baseball Classic. On the upside, parking was only $3. On the downside, we had to stand in line for an hour and a half to pick up our tickets from will call. Not the smoothest run operation.

Game 1 was the Dominican Republic vs the Netherlands. We missed Eugene Kingsale scoring in the first inning, but cheered for him in subsequent at bats. The sun was out the whole game and the stadium was about half full. The Netherlands ended up beating the Dominican Republic 3 to 2.

After killing a couple of hours at the mall across the street, we settled in for Panama vs Puerto Rico in game 2. The locals came out in force to cheer on their team. The rain held off and Puerto Rico ended up walking all over Panama beating them 7 to 0.

Today is the loosers bracket of Panama vs Dominican Republic. Tomorrow will be Netherlands vs Puerto Rico in the winners bracket.

Other WBC scores so far:

• Japan and Korea play Monday to determine the winner of Pool A.
• Pool B kicks off today with RSA v CUB and AUS v MEX.
• Yesterday USA beat Canada 6 to 5 and Venezuela killed Italy 7 to 0.