Canada wins silver medal at ISF Junior Men’s World Championships
June 30, 2008
Whitehorse, YK
Canada wins silver medal at ISF JuniorMen’s World Championships
(Whitehorse, Yukon) – It was a bittersweet day forTeam Canada, as they came into the final day of the tournament having lost toboth Japan and Australia in the round-robin, the two very teams they needed tobeat to earn Canada’s first gold medal at the event since 1993. Canada startedthe day off with a stunning 5-3 win over Japan, and lost a heartbreaking 2-1decision in eight innings against Australia.
In the bronze medal game, Japan won the coin tossand elected to bat first to jump all over Canada early, which was exactly whatthey did, scoring two runs in the top of the first on a homerun. Canada cameright back in the bottom of the second though, as Jessin Potskin (PrinceGeorge, BC) led off with a single, was sacrificed to second by Shane Boland(Goulds, NL) and was driven home on a two-run homerun by Dan Mitchell (Paris,ON). Two batters later, Terrell Walker (Balcarres, SK) stepped up to the plateand delivered a solo homerun of his own, giving Canada a 3-2 lead.
That lead would hold until the top of the seventh.Canada quickly retired the two first batters, and was one out away fromreaching the tournament final. However, the Japanese hitter hit a deep fly toright field that cleared the fence for a game-tying homerun. Rather than getdown on themselves for the wasted opportunity, Canada was lifted when TerrellWalker hit a grounder to shortstop that bounced of the chest of the Japanesedefender. Then, Dylan Cunningham (Belwood, ON) connected with a walk-offtwo-run homerun to deep centerfield, sending the Canadian bench and crowd intoa frenzy.
Dustin Keshane (Norquay, SK) threw the complete gamefor Canada, his third one in three straight games. Keshane surrendered two runson only three hits, and struck out 12 Japanese hitters along the way, includingall three batters in the second and fourth innings. At the plate, Mitchell andWalker each had a homerun and a single, while Jessin Potskin added a pair ofsingles and Cunningham had the game-winning drive.
In the Championship game, Canada surprisingly wentback to their second ace, Devon McCullough (Saskatoon, SK) who hadn’t pitchedsince Thursday. Many fans had predicted Keshane would throw once again giventhe success he had in the past three games. However, head coach Tom Doucettegave the ball to McCullough, and he certainly did not disappoint.
The game quickly unfolded into a pitcher’s duelbetween McCullough and Aussie pitcher Matt Stafford, as both pitchers did notsurrender a run through the first seven innings. In fact, both McCullough andStafford had only surrendered two hits up to that point.
In the top of the eighth, Canada started with JessinPotskin on second base due to the International Tie-Breaker rule. After CoryJones (Leduc, AB) failed to get a bunt down, he more than made up for it with asolid RBI single up the middle, pushing Potskin to home, giving Canada a 1-0lead going into the bottom of the inning.
Australia also started with a runner on second base,but Canada came extremely close to negate that runner on the opening hitter.The first hitter hit a fly ball to left field, which looked like it was goingto drop in but Mike Noftall (St. John’s NL) ran in to make the play and fired abullet to second base to attempt to pick off the runner on second base. Therunner slid back and appeared to be out, but was called safe by the second baseumpire, giving Australia a ray of hope. The next batter singled and stolesecond base, putting runner on second and third with only one out.
McCulloughwas able to force the next hitter to hit a soft groundball right back to him ashe looked the runner on third back and threw the ball over to first for thesecond out. The Aussies called on pinch-hitter Drew Faulkner, who came up withthe game-winning hit up the middle to score both runners, giving Australia itsfourth straight Junior Men’s World Championship title.
“It was a tough way to lose, but two inches to theleft and (Terrell) Walker gets that ball and throws the runner out at first”commented Canadian head coach Tom Doucette. “(Dustin) Keshane is a tremendouspitcher and had the hot hand, but we made the right decision to come back to(Devon) McCullough. He pitched a heck of a game for us and came one pitch awayfrom a World Championship.”
The final line on McCullough was two runs on fourhits and three walks with three strikeouts. Canada managed three hits in thegame, two by Jones and one by Walker.
As a result, Canada was awarded with the silvermedal, while Japan took the bronze and Australia the gold, putting an end tothe 2008 ISF Junior Men’s World Championships. The organizing committee did atremendous job over the course of the past 10 days and even the past fewmonths. Softball Canada would like to thank them for their excellent work andhospitality, as well as to the players who gave their best effort and the fanswho supported the team until the last pitch!
Formore information, please contact:
GillesLeBlanc
Manager:Marketing and Communications Services
SoftballCanada
(613)523-3386 ext 3105
