MIAMI (AP) — Austin Wells hit a walk-off three-run homer in the seventh inning that ended the game under a tournament rout rule, and the Dominican Republic beat South Korea 10-0 Friday night to reach the World Baseball Classic semifinals.
Seeking its second title and first since 2013, the Dominicans play the United States or Canada in a semifinal on Sunday in Miami. The Dominicans are 5-0 in the tournament, have outscored opponents 51-10 while batting .312 and with 14 homers tied the WBC record set by Mexico in 2009.
Fernando Tatis Jr. drove in two runs and has 11 RBIs in the tournament. He is tied for third in a single WBC, trailing only Masataka Yoshida’s 13 for Japan in 2023 and Wladimir Balentien’s 12 for the Netherlands in 2017.
Wells, who entered as a defensive replacement in the top of the seventh, reached down and drove a first-pitch cutter from Hyeong Jun So off the front of the second deck in right. Wells was born in Arizona to a mother is of Dominican descent.
He hit the Dominicans’ second walk-off homer of the tournament after Juan Soto’s drive that ended a 12-1 group stage win over the Netherlands.
Backed by three runs in the second inning and four in the third, winner Christopher Sánchez struck out eight in five innings of two-hit ball.
South Korea, which lost a semifinal in 2006 and the final in 2009, had been eliminated in the first round three straight times before reaching a quarterfinal this year. The South Koreans had two hits, batted .222 and finished with a 5.91 ERA.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. walked against loser Hyun Jin Ryu and scored the game’s first run from first base with a head-first slide on Junior Caminero’s double into the left-field corner. Julio Rodríguez followed with an RBI groundout and Tatis had a run-scoring single.
Soto scored on Guerrero’s double in a four-run fourth, hooking an arm around catcher Dong Won Park with a head-first slide.
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