Guatemala City, Guatemala – The Canadian U17 Junior Men’s National Team wrapped up their preliminary round schedule with an 8-1 win in five innings over Belize. Team Canada scored three runs in the first inning and added three more on a homerun by Brock Fencott (Belleville, Ont.) in the fourth, while Brody Fraser (Upper Nine Mile River, N.S.) allowed only two hits and struck out 13 batters to earn the win in the pitcher’s circle.
 
After Fraser retired Belize in order in the top of the first, Ryan Bicknell (Prince Albert, Sask.) started the bottom of the inning with a walk followed by an error to put two runners on base before Fraser lined a two-run single into right. Fraser was sacrificed to second and advanced to third on an error before scoring on a ground out to second to give Canada a 3-0 lead. Fraser issued two walks in the second but struck out the other three batters to leave both runners stranded and struck out the side the following inning too. However, he allowed a walk between a pair of strikeouts in the fourth before giving up a two-run double on a deep fly ball that kicked off the backtracking left fielder’s glove as Belize was able to score a run.
 
The Canadian offence responded with five runs in the bottom of the fourth to put the run rule into effect. Xavier Daneau (St-Célestin, Que.) started the inning by reaching on an error followed by a single to right by Jack Becker (Drumbo, Ont.), moving Daneau up to third and putting runners on the corners. An error by the second baseman allowed Daneau to score and Becker to move up to third before Fencott got a hold of one and sent it over the centerfield fence for a three-run blast. Bicknell followed that up by lining a triple to center and later scored on a single by Jackson Pegelo (Cargill, Ont.) to increase Canada’s lead to 8-1. Fraser allowed a two-out single in the top half of the fifth and that runner was able to steal second and advanced to third on a throwing error by the catcher, but Fraser struck out the next batter to end the game.
 
Box Score: Canada 8 vs. Belize 1
 
Fraser allowed one run on two hits and three walks while striking out 13 in the five inning win. Fencott led Canada at the plate by going 2-for-2 with a three-run homerun, while Fraser contributed with a two-run single. Bicknell tripled and scored twice, with Pegelo and Becker each adding a hit.
 
With the win, Canada finished the preliminary round with a 5-1 record, good for first place given their head-to-head win over Mexico (5-1) earlier in the tournament. Canada and Mexico will play in the Gold medal game at 2:00pm CST on Saturday (3:00pm EST) with Guatemala and Argentina facing off in the Bronze medal game at 11:00am CST. Live streaming is available on the Pan American Softball Facebook page, with Softball Canada providing live GameChanger scoring for all of its games. The event can also be followed through the WBSC Americas social media channels on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the #U17SoftballPanam hashtag, as well as the Softbol Guatemala Facebook page.
 
All four teams playing in the medal games have qualified for the 2020 WBSC U18 Men’s World Cup that will be played in New Zealand in February.