Local baseball players take God's mission, love of game to Dominican Republic

When a former Reds pitching prospect returned from a nine-day mission to the Dominican Republic Sunday, he counted up the wins and losses his team of high school and former UC players compiled on the trip. "We didn't do too bad,” said Hamilton native Curtus Moak, a former pitching star at UC and a 25th-round draft choice of the Reds in 2001 “We won two, lost two, and had a tie. It was an incredible trip.” But the Hamilton, Ohio, native is a pastor now at Hamilton Christian Church and he doesn’t count his success in wins and losses, but in saves. “Two things were important to us. That was expressing the love of God, and the love of the game,” said Moak. The trip was all about "sharing the Gospel, and sharing the game we know and love," said Treg Haberkorn, also a former UC player. Moak’s group, part of Missions.me, gave away 100 baseballs, a dozen bats, 200 pairs of pants, two different sets of jerseys and 100 gloves to Dominican kids who love the game but have little equipment to speak of.