Team Canada Closes Preliminary Round with
Win over Venezuela at Pan American Games

(Ajax, ON) The Canadian Men’s Softball Team completed the preliminary round of the Pan American Games with a 4-1 win over Venezuela on Thursday. A trio of Canadian pitchers combined to allow only two hits and Canada’s bats produced 11 hits as the red and white locked up first place. Team Canada will now play Argentina in the first versus second Page playoff semi-final at 7:00pm EDT on Friday, with the winner of that game advancing directly to Saturday’s Gold medal Game.
 
In the bottom of the first, Mathieu Roy (St-Gervais, QC) led off with an infield single and advanced to third on a single by Jeff Ellsworth (St. Lawrence, PEI) before scoring on a third single by Steve Mullaley (Freshwater, NL) off Venezuela pitcher Ramon Jones as Canada took an early 1-0 lead. Each team exchanged singles in the second but were unable to advance the runners any further, and Canada added a run to its lead in the bottom half of the third when Roy was hit by a pitch and ran all the way around the bases to score on a triple to left field corner by Ellsworth.
 
Paul Koert (Stouffville, ON) started the game in the pitcher’s circle for Canada and pitched well over the first three innings, allowing only two baserunners on a single and a walk. Andy Skelton (Scarborough, ON) picked up right where Koert left off, sitting Venezuela down in order in the fourth. The following inning, Skelton issued two walks to start the inning but got a pop out to the catcher, a strikeout and a pop out to second base to keep Venezuela off the scoreboard.
 
Roy got things started again for Canada in the fifth with a great bunt single to first. He was retired on a fielder’s choice on a ground ball by Ellsworth, but Mullaley followed up with a deep fly ball that hit the black protective tube at the top of the fence for a run-scoring triple. Skelton then lifted a soft line drive over the second baseman to score Mullaley from third and give Canada a 4-0 lead. Venezuela got a solo homerun with two outs in the top of the sixth, and Derek Mayson (North Vancouver, BC) closed out the seventh by inducing a pair of ground outs and striking out the final batter to end the game.
 
Box Score: Canada 4 vs. Venezuela 1
 
Koert allowed only one hit and struck out two in three innings, while Skelton allowed just the solo homerun with four strikeouts and three innings of relief. Mayson struck out one in a clean inning. At the plate, Mullaley had a triple, a single and produced two runs, with Ellsworth also contributing a triple and a single and driving in one. Roy had a pair of singles and scored twice, Horn also managed two singles and Skelton, Jason Sanford (Durham, NS) and Kevin Schellenberg (Squamish, BC) each registered a hit.
 
The win improved Canada’s first place record to 5-0, while Venezuela dropped to 3-2. In other scores, Argentina (3-2) defeated the Dominican Republic (0-5) by a score of 7-0 and the United States (2-3) edged Mexico (2-3) by a 2-1 score. Argentina finished ahead of Venezuela and the United States ahead of Mexico due to their head-to-head matchups. The first semi-final between the third and fourth place teams of Venezuela and the United States will be played at 4:30pm EDT on Friday, followed by Canada against Argentina at 7:00pm EDT.