US beats Dominicans 10-8, advances in Olympic qualifying
Oakland's Mark Payton, Tampa Bay's Jake Cronenworth, Philadelphia's Alec Bohm and the New York Yankees' Erik Kratz homered as the United States built a six-run lead and hung on to beat the Dominican Republic 10-8 Monday night to advance to the second round of Olympic baseball qualifying.
Brandon Dickson, who last pitched in the major leagues with St. Louis in 2012, allowed Alfredo Marte's two-out RBI single in the ninth, then struck out Carlos Puguero on a full-count pitch with a man on for the save in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Mexico (2-0) and the U.S. (2-1) will advance from Group A of the Premier12 tournament to a super group in Japan. The top finisher from the Americas qualifies for next year's Olympic baseball tournament in Japan. Second- and third-place finishers from the Americas go to a final qualifying tournament in March or April.
Seattle right-hander Wyatt Mills earned the win by pitching two hitless innings. Loser Carlos Sano allowed four runs and five hits in 1 2/3 innings.
Payton hit a solo homer in the first. The Americans, coached by Scott Brosius, built a 4-0 lead in the second on Cronenworth's solo homer and Kratz's RBI single off Sano, and a run-scoring single by the Los Angeles Angels' Jo Adell against Bryan Valdes.
Edwin Espinal hit a two-run single in the second against Oakland's Parker Dunshee, but Bohm's three-run homer in the third off Christopher Sanchez and an RBI single by Boston's Bobby Dalbec in the fourth made it 8-2.
Espinal had an RBI single off Seattle's Penn Murfee in the bottom half, but Kratz homered in the fifth off Carlos Pimentel for a 9-3 lead.
The Dominicans closed to 9-7 with a four-run fifth that included Carlos Peguero's RBI grounder off Kansas City's Bryan Flynn and Charlie Valerio's three-run homer.
Adell had an RBI single in the eighth against former big leaguer Neftali Feliz.
