2015 Pan American Games - Day 2 Summary

July 14, 2015

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2015 Pan American Games – Men’s Softball Day 2 Summary

 

Mexico 5 vs. Argentina 3

 

Mexico got back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the second and the runners advanced to second and third but Juan Potolicchio struck out the next three batters to keep the game scoreless. Mexico opened the scoring in the bottom of the third when Edgar Lopez led off with a single, advanced to second on a passed ball and scored when Marco Gonzalez hit a seeing-eye single between the first and second basemen. The following inning, Mexico got two runners on and chased Potolicchio from the game, and Jesus Cardona later hit a towering three-run homerun off the centerfielder’s glove at the wall to take a 4-0 lead. Argentina responded with two runs in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Mariano Montero and an RBI single by Juan Malarczuk to cut the lead in half, but Mexico later added a run on an RBI single by Cardona in the sixth. Argentina mounted a comeback in the seventh when Gustavo Godoy homered to centerfield to cut the lead to 5-3 and a pair of singles put the winning run at the plate, but a fly out to shortstop ended the game.

 

Venezuela 5 vs. Dominican Republic 1

 

Venezuela struck first in this game as Arturo Acacio hit a ground-rule double to left and scored on a single by Luiger Pinto, who later scored on a passed ball with Venezuela scoring two runs in the bottom of the first. Pinto and Edwin Linares each hit deep RBI doubles to the left field fence in the third as Venezuela built a 4-0 lead. The Dominican Republic scored a run on an RBI double to left by Wilton Villafana, but Venezuela got that run back on an error in the bottom of the fifth. Ramon Jones picked up the complete game win in the pitcher’s circle for Venezuela, allowing only three hits and striking out six batters.

 

Canada 3 vs. United States 2

 

In a matchup featuring the top two teams from each of the seven previous Pan American Games from 1979-2003, Canada and the United States played an entertaining back and forth game that went to an extra inning. Starting pitchers Sean Cleary of Canada and Gerald Muizelaar from the United States had trouble finding the strike zone early in the game but were able to work their way out of danger until the Americans opened the scoring on a leadoff homerun by Josh Johnson in the bottom of the fourth. In the fifth, Tony Mancha came in to hold the lead but Jeff Ellsworth hit a two-run homerun to left as the first batter he faced. Team USA was able to produce a run in the bottom of the seventh to force an extra inning, with Jason Hill producing the go-ahead run and the game ended on a double play on a line drive to Ian Fehrman as Canada took the win. Cleary struck out 16 batters as he earned the complete game win.

 

Day three matchups:

 

2:00pm EDT: United States (1-1) vs. Venezuela (1-1)

4:30pm EDT: Dominican Republic (0-2) vs. Mexico (1-1)

7:00pm EDT: Canada (2-0) vs. Argentina (1-1)

 

 

Gilles LeBlanc

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