Men’s Softball Team Wins Extra Inning Nail-Biter
against United States at Pan Am Games

(Ajax, ON) The Canadian Men’s Softball Team pulled out a nail-biting 3-2 win in eight innings over the United States in its second game of the Pan American Games. Jeff Ellsworth (St. Lawrence, PEI) had a two-run homerun to put Canada ahead in the fifth before the Americans tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, and after Jason Hill (St. John’s, NL) knocked in the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth, Ian Fehrman (Townsend, ON) turned a key double play to end the game.
 
In the top of the first, Mathieu Roy (St-Gervais, QC) and Brad Ezekiel (Harbour Main, NL) both walked to start the game but Roy was caught stealing at third, and a pop up followed by a strikeout left Ezekiel stranded at second. In the bottom of the inning, Canadian pitcher Sean Cleary (Harbour Main, NL) started out strong as he struck out the side. Derek Mayson (North Vancouver, BC) drew a one-out walk in the second but Canada went down on three groundouts in the inning. The United States also got a one-out walk in the bottom of the frame and Kris Bogach put a great swing on a ball deep to right field but Ellsworth  tracked the ball and made a fantastic leaping grab right at the top of the fence as Canada got out of the inning unscathed.
 
Canada was able to load the bases on a hit by pitch and two walks in the top of the third, but the next batter struck out to end the inning. The Americans also threatened in the bottom of the inning with two walks of their own, but Cleary got three big strikeouts to keep the game scoreless through three. Mayson led off the fourth with a single but American pitcher Gerald Muizelaar got two strikeouts and a fly out. In the bottom of the frame, Josh Johnson led off with a homerun over the right field fence to open the scoring.
 
Roy led off the top of the fifth with a double to right field and advanced on a passed ball. After a lineout to third for the first out, Team USA made a pitching change to bring in Tony Mancha, and Ellsworth connected with a big two-run homerun to left to give Canada the 2-1 lead. After a quick sixth inning, the Americans turned the pressure on with a leadoff single and a walk in the bottom of the seventh, and scored the tying run on a ground ball off the diving third baseman’s glove. A passed ball put runners on second and third with the next batter being intentionally walked to load the bases with one out. Cleary registered two huge strikeouts to get out of the inning and force an extra inning.
 
With Ellsworth starting on second base on the international tie-breaker rule, Hill singled to left and Ellsworth scored with the left fielder misplaying the bounce, allowing Hill to reach second. Ryan Wolfe (Melbourne, ON) pinch ran for him, and Mayson walked to put runners on first and second. The next batter hit a ground ball to second with Mayson getting himself intentionally caught in a rundown between first and second in order to attempt to score Wolfe who rounded third and headed for home. Unfortunately for Team Canada, the umpire ruled that Mayson was tagged out before Wolfe touched the plate as Canada took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the inning. Cleary struck out the first batter followed by a soft line drive to short that Fehrman climbed the ladder to snag, and tossed the ball to second for a double play as the runner broke for third – expecting the ball to get over Fehrman – to end the game.
 
Box Score: Canada 3 vs. United States 2
 
Cleary allowed two runs on only four hits, walking six batters but retiring 16 American batters on strikeouts. Ellsworth had the big go-ahead two-run homerun and also crossed the plate for the winning run, while Hill had the game-winning RBI single. Roy had a double and a single and Steve Mullaley (Freshwater, NL), Ryan Boland (Goulds, NL) and Mayson each added a hit.
 
Earlier in the day on Monday, Mexico defeated Argentina by a score of 5-3 and Venezuela beat the Dominican Republic 5-1.
 
Team Canada (2-0) will play its next game against Argentina (1-1) at 7:00pm EDT on Tuesday. Other games will include Venezuela (1-1) against the United States (1-1) at 2:00pm EDT followed by the Dominican Republic (0-2) taking on Mexico (1-1) at 4:30pm EDT.