Germany 000 003 000 1 4 10 0 Nicaragua 020 000 001 2 5 11 1
Germany lost their opening match at the World Baseball Classic Qualifier in Mexicali on Thursday afternoon against Nicaragua. A walk-off two-run double by Alex Blandino in the bottom of the tenth lifted the Central Americans to a 5-4 win. After Nicaragua took a quick 2-0 lead in the second, Germany struck back with a three-run home run by Bruce Maxwell in the sixth.
In the top of the ninth they missed out on a great scoring opportunity and Nicaragua tied the game in the bottom half. In extra innings Donald Lutz quickly worked a walk and scored all the way from first thanks to a RBI double by Ludwig Glaser. Once again Nicaragua had an answer. Batting against Enorbel Marquez-Ramirez they got a couple of groundball singles sandwiching a line out. Blandino, a first-round pick, came through and hit a two-run double to end the contest.
Markus Solbach pitched six great innings for Germany, allowing just two runs on five hits, two runs and a walk. Luke Sommer, Martin Dewald, Maurice Wilhelm and Marquez followed.