Dominican Republic baseball team travels to Northwest Georgia to play ball [video]

From left are David Sampson, Robersy Lara and Taylor Barnes, the men responsible for bringing the baseball players to America through Operation Dominican Dream.
From left are David Sampson, Robersy Lara and Taylor Barnes, the men responsible for bringing the baseball players to America through Operation Dominican Dream.

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Dominican Republic Score International Baseball Team had a lot of firsts in Northwest Georgia. Two players sounded off on impact of trip …* Yoel Celedonio, 13, and Jansel Asticio, 12, both experienced their first plane ride.*Both boys got to see a professional Atlanta Braves baseball game right after landing.* Asticio went on a rollercoaster for the first time.*Both boys experienced swimming in a large pool for the first time at the Fort Oglethorpe Pool.* Celedonio said his favorite thing was worshipping God with other types of people.* Asticio said he liked the plane ride the best.

In the Dominican Republic, some of Youth Pastor Robersy Lara's 12- and 13-year-old baseball players don't get to eat every day. But after two years of prayer, the Score International Baseball players were able to live their dream and come up to bat in Northwest Georgia and Chattanooga last month.

The players were able to make the journey from their home country thanks to Parkway Baptist Church Pastor David Sampson and his congregation, who raised $20,000 through Operation Dominican Dream.

At home, Lara said, many of his players are used to living in tin huts. Many sleep on a dirt floor. But thanks to the dream fund and the efforts of the local church team, the players were housed at Moriah Baptist Mission in Fort Oglethorpe.

"We prayed for two years to be able to come here," said Lara. "The Lord brought us here to play with an American team. [Americans] have breakfast, lunch and dinner here and some of my boys don't eat for a couple of days [in the Dominican Republic]."

Throughout the end of July, the Dominican team played the 12-year-old Chickamauga Recreation All-Stars, beating them 27-2. Later on, they then played Baylor School's Exposure team, losing 13-3. And the third night of their stay, the boys beat the East Ridge All-Star team 18-3.

But the last night of the team's stay was possibly the best, the Dominican and Chickamauga players agreed. That night, all the players shuffled teams, playing a group game before swimming and saying goodbye to one another.

Taylor Barnes, coach for the Chickamauga team and founder of Operation Dream, said each day of the games brought a huge crowd to the area. And, although he knew Operation Dominican Dream was important, he never knew it would result in such as success.

"The bleachers were totally full," he said. "It was the biggest crowd ever at the little league baseball game."

"Small acts of kindness have been neat," said Sampson. "A family watched us eating at Cracker Barrel and wanted to do something for the kids. So, they bought packs of balloons for the kids. A lady in the church collected $1,400 by word of mouth to buy brand new tennis shoes for all the boys from the Dominican Republic too. The boys took the rest of the money and bought gifts for their parents. One boy wanted to buy a pot and a pan for his mom to make sure she had one."

Contact Katie Ward at kward@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6425.

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