July2015

Canadian Men’s Softball Team Guaranteed a Medal at Pan Am Games

July 16, 2015

Toronto, ON

 

Canadian Men’s Softball Team Guaranteed a Medal at Pan Am Games

The following is a media release issued by Softball Canada.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 16th, 2015
 

Canadian Men’s Softball Team
Guaranteed a Medal at Pan Am Games


(Ajax, ON) The Canadian Men’s Softball Team guaranteed itself a spot in the first versus second playoff game and assured itself of a medal with a 7-2 win over the Dominican Republic on Wednesday night. Team Canada broke a 2-2 tie by taking advantage of two costly errors and scoring five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, while Andy Skelton (Scarborough, ON) and Paul Koert (Stouffville, ON) combined to allow only two hits in the win.
 
In the bottom of the first, Ryan Wolfe (Melbourne, ON) led off with a walk, stole second, advanced to third when the throw from the catcher went into centerfield and later scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Jason Hill (St. John’s, NL) to give Canada an early 1-0 lead. With a runner on base, Steve Mullaley (Freshwater, NL) hit a towering fly ball deep to right field but the outfielder was able to track it down and make a leaping grab at the top of the fence.
 
Skelton started the game in the pitcher’s circle and was perfect through four innings, backed by several great defensive plays. Team Canada doubled its lead with a solo homerun to right field by Hill in the bottom half of the fourth, but the Dominican Republic came right back to tie the game in the top of the fifth when Skelton walked the first two batters and gave up a two-run triple to right field for the Dominican Republic’s first hit of the game, tying the score at 2-2 and chasing Skelton to bring in Koert. Ian Fehrman (Townsend, ON) led off the bottom of the inning with a single to left but was retired on a double play on a ground ball to second base.
 
In the top of the sixth, Koert struck out the first two batters but the next hitter hit a deep fly ball to left that Mathieu Roy (St-Gervais, QC) took his first step in on, but turned around and ran all out and made an excellent catch to rob a sure extra base hit. In the bottom of the frame, Canada got two walks to put runners at first and second with two outs, and the runners advanced on a passed ball. Skelton hit a ground ball to first base that hit the fielder’s glove and rolled just a few feet away, but no one was covering first base as Canada plated the go-ahead run on the play. Derek Mayson (North Vancouver, BC) then hit a ground ball to shortstop with a low throw that the first baseman was unable to hang on to, allowing another run to score. Fehrman then hit a run-scoring single to left, and Ryan Boland (Goulds, NL) hit a hard line drive that the shortstop was unable to keep in his glove and brought another run in to score. A walk loaded the bases, and Roy worked a walk to bring in another run before a fly out ended the big inning with Canada taking a 7-2 lead into the seventh. Koert allowed a one-out single up the middle, but struck out three in the inning to end the game.
 
Box Score: Canada 7 vs. Dominican Republic 2
 
Skelton allowed two runs on only one hit and two walks with two strikeouts in four innings and two thirds for Canada, with Koert earning the win in relief by giving up only one hit and striking out six in two innings and a third. Hill had a homerun and drove in two runs for Canada, while Fehrman had a pair of singles and a run batted in. Boland also contributed an RBI single.
 
The win improved Canada’s record to 4-0 and guaranteed them a top two finish in the preliminary round. In other scores on the fourth day of competition, Venezuela beat Mexico 5-1 and Argentina defeated the United States 3-1.
 
Team Canada (4-0) will close out the preliminary round against Venezuela (3-1) at 4:30pm EDT on Thursday in a possible playoff preview. Other matchups include Argentina (2-2) taking on the Dominican Republic (0-4) at 2:00pm and Mexico (2-2) playing the United States (1-3) at 7:00pm. The Page playoff round will begin on Friday and will see the third place team taking on the fourth place team in the first semi-final and the top two teams square off in the other. The winning team of the first semi-final will advance to play the loser of the second semi-final on Saturday to earn a spot in the Championship game, with the winning team of the second semi-final earning a direct berth in Saturday’s Gold medal game.

-SC-

For more information, please contact:

Gilles LeBlanc
Manager - Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
Cell: (613) 797-7171
gleblanc@softball.ca
OUR SPONSORS

TRENDING NOW
@alsfastball
FRIENDS OF AL'S FASTBALL
AU Sable AFP Fastpitch Fastpitch West International Softball Congress Men’s Fastpitch SA North American Fastpitch Association Ontario Amateur Softball Association

Ontario Masters Fastball sports betting site betway Shooters Fastpitch League Softball Canada Softball New Zealand WBSC