The 11-inning thriller was not decided until Dominican first baseman Willy Aybar botched a hard-hit ball from Yurendell de Caster and Gene Kingsale -- a goat turned hero within 15 minutes -- scored the deciding run from third base.

"It's a miracle. That's all I can tell you," Dutch manager Rod Delmonico said. "Our guys came together as a team and miraculously we won.

"It's not because we're better than they are. They're one of the best teams in the world. We just played hard and it happened."

A fairy tale European side with half a team from the Dutch Antilles ousted a superstar Dominican lineup to join powerhouses United States, Puerto Rico and Venezuela in a group that opens second-round play Saturday in Miami.
"When you think you've seen it all, you find out you're wrong," Dominican manager Felipe Alou said. "We've seen something that we never imagined. So that means that the quality of baseball is growing.

"It's unbelievable. There are no words for it," Dutch hurler Tom Stuifbergen said. "We had to believe to do it. We just always said we could, but it's almost impossible. We just did it. It's just amazing."

The Caribbean team of elite Major League Baseball millionaires fell victim to a Dutch Double in a thrilling drama that for much of the planet would be like the Dominicans beating the Dutch in football's World Cup.

"I've never been part of a team with as much passion as this team has," said Delmonico. "All I can say is wow."

Tension mounted through 10 scoreless innings. In the 11th, Dutch pitcher Leon Boyd issued a two-out walk to Jose Reyes and was undone when Jose Bautista followed with a slap to short right field that Kingsale raced to catch.

Instead, Kingsale missed and the ball rolled past him, allowing Reyes to score and Bautista to reach third on the error. Boyd struck out Hanley Ramirez to end the threat but the damage had been done.

"Our guys were upset," Delmonico said. "The mood in the dugout was, hey, it's our turn. It was not a mood of feeling sorry for themselves. It was a mood of 'We've got to score.'"

Dominican supporters celebrated but the Dutch would have their chance to answer, batting last as the designated home team, and they made the most of it.
Dutch pinch hitter Sidney de Jong doubled and reached third on Curt Smith's ground out, bringing Aruba's Kingsale to the plate with a chance at redemption.
Kingsale singled to right field to score de Jong with the equalizer and moments later, Carlos Marmol made an errant throw to first base on an attempt to pick off Kingsale, who raced to third.

Marmol responded by striking out Sharlon Schoop, then intentionally walking former major leaguer Randall Simon to bring de Caster to the plate.
De Caster swatted the ball down the first base line, where it deflected away from Aybar to score Kingsale and touch off a bench-clearing Dutch celebration.
"Sidney took us to where we needed to be and de Caster earned it with a real good bat, just battled it, put the ball in play and made something happen," Delmonico said.

"It was the biggest at-bat in my career," de Caster said. "I had to make a good contact and I did."

The stunned Dominicans could only watch.
"We didn't hit," Alou said. "We had a couple of plays in the last inning that were not 'big league' but they played baseball that was practically perfect against us."

Expatica 2009