SAN DIEGO, CA.- With a new record of 8-0, the Dominican Republic became tonight the new champions of the World Baseball Classic by beating Puerto Rico 3-0 at the AT&T Park in San Francisco. The Dominicans became the first team in the tournament's history to remain unbeaten through the whole tournament.

The now champions started scoring early thanks to Edwing Encarnacion who doubled on a line drive to center fielder Angel Pagan. This allowed Jose Reyes and Robinson Cano to score, just in the bottom first.

Puerto Rico did not reacted and at the bottom 5 Erick Aybar doubled on a line drive to right fielder Alex Rios, allowing Alejandro De Aza to score and close the scoreboard 0-3 in favor of the now champions.

Samuel Deduno (1-0) was the winning pitcher, saved by Fernando Rodney (1), while Giancarlo Alvarado (0-1) suffered the defeat for the Puerto Ricans.

The Dominican Republic had a wonderful Classic with 3 victories in Group C, including one over Puerto Rico, before entering Pool 2 where they beat Italy 5-4 and eliminated Team USA 3-1 before passing over Puerto Rico again 2-0. In the Semifinals the team was able to beat The Netherlands 4-1 to meet the Puerto Ricans once again but now in the Final, beating them to be the first team with 8 victories in a single tournament.

Now the World Baseball Classic has two champions recorded in history, the first one was Team Japan who won on the 2006 and 2009 editions, with Dominican Republic as the new king.

manuel.medina@sandiegored.com