Team Canada Improves First Place
Record to 3-0 at Pan Am Games

(Ajax, ON) The Canadian Men’s Softball Team improved its first place record to 3-0 at the Pan American Games with a 9-3 win over Argentina. Team Canada got on the board early on a two-run homerun by Jeff Ellsworth (St. Lawrence, PEI) in the top of the first before Argentina fought back to take a 3-2 lead, but Canada exploded for six runs in the fifth and pitcher Sean Cleary (Harbour Main, NL) was lights out over the last three innings to lead Canada to the win.
 
Team Canada did not waste any time opening the scoring, as Mathieu Roy (St-Gervais, QC) led off with a single up the middle and moved up to second on a ground out before Ellsworth hit a two-run blast to left field as Canada took a 2-0 lead. After Cleary struck out the first two batters in the bottom of the inning, Argentina got one of those runs back when Huemul Mata hit a solo homerun to center.
 
Both teams went down in order quickly in the second, and Roy chopped a single to second base to start the third but could not get any further as he was retired on a double play to end the inning. The Argentineans caught a break as their leadoff batter reached when the first baseman was pulled off the bag on a throw from third base and the runner later raced around to third on a based ball, but Cleary got a ground ball to shortstop to freeze the runner followed by a bunt attempt that was popped up to leave the runner stranded at third.
 
Derek Mayson (North Vancouver, BC) lined a two-out single to right but the next batter struck out, and Argentina was able to score two runs to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Mata led off with a single followed by an error, and the runners were sacrificed to second and third before a sacrifice fly to right tied the game. The next batter lined a pitch up the middle to bring in the go-ahead run from third as Argentina took a 3-2 lead.
 
Canada’s bats went right to work in the top of the fifth as they sent eleven batters to the plate. Ryan Boland (Goulds, NL) led off with a double to the left-center field gap and was replaced by pinch runner Ryan Wolfe (Melbourne, ON). Kevin Schellenberg (Squamish, BC) then lifted a shallow fly ball over the second baseman that dropped in for a run-scoring single to tie the game followed by another single to right by Roy. A fly ball to right field allowed the runners to tag up and advance to second and third before Ellsworth was intentionally walked to load the bases. Steve Mullaley (Freshwater, NL) then lined a pitch past the third baseman for a two-run single to left, Andy Skelton (Scarborough, ON) followed with a run-scoring single to center and Mayson split the right-center field gap for a two-run double as Canada took a big 8-3 lead. Canada added its final run in the sixth when Ellsworth drew a two-out walk and scored on a triple to right-center field by Mullaley.
 
Box Score: Canada 9 vs. Argentina 3
 
Cleary allowed three runs, with only one being earned, on five hits and struck out 11 in the complete game win. Mayson, Mullaley and Roy all collected three hits for Canada, with Ellsworth hitting the two-run homerun and other key hits going to Boland, Skelton and Schellenberg.
 
Team Canada (3-0) will play its next game against the Dominican Republic (0-3) at 7:00pm EDT on Wednesday. In other scores on the third day of competition at the Pan Am Games, Venezuela defeated the United States 3-1 and Mexico doubled the Dominican Republic 4-2. Other games on Wednesday will include Mexico (2-1) against Venezuela (2-1) at 2:00pm EDT followed by the United States (1-2) taking on Argentina (1-2).