FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 7^th, 2008

 

(Saskatoon, SK) - Team Canada was thebeneficiary of strong pitching and timely hitting to come out on the right sideof a 1-0 decision in what proved to be a thriller in the championship game ofthe Three Nations Challenge at Bob Van Impe Park in Saskatoon.  Thewinning run scored in the bottom of the seventh inning when right fielder Jeff Ellsworth (St. Lawrence, PEI) drilled a one ball, two strike offering from losing Japanese pitcher Tatsuya Hamaguchi into the gap in left center field fora game winning double, sending home Ian Fehrman (Townsend, ON) who led off theinning with a single that deflected off Hamaguchi’s glove and past secondbaseman Yu Nishimori. Fehrman had moved to second on Craig Crawford’s(Kitchener, ON) second sacrifice bunt of the game. The single was Fehrman’ssecond of the game.

 

Starting pitcher Todd Martin (Bracebridge,ON) combined with Saskatchewan boys Trevor Ethier (Saskatoon, SK) and DeanHoloien (Melfort, SK) to limit the Japanese to just one hit, an infield chopperby Shuhei Suzuki in the sixth inning. Holoien was able to get his hand on the ball but it was just a bit too high to field cleanly. Holoien went on to starta nice 1-6-3 double play on a comebacker from next batter Hiroku Yokoyama..  Ethier had earlier pleased the hometown crowd by sending down the sidein order in both the fourth and fifth innings.

 

Other Canadian hits came off the bats of Jody Eidt (Mitchell, ON), Rob Giesbrecht (Landmark, ON) and Derek Mayson (NorthVancouver, BC).

 

Holoien picked up the win, striking outthree in his two innings of work while Ethier also struck out three in his twoinnings and Martin five in his three innings. The Canadian hitters did notstrike out during the game.

 

Congratulations to the host committee forstaging a well organized tournament and helping to keep things exciting on thefield and smoothly run behind the scenes.

 

The Canadian Senior Men’s National Teamwill host the 2009 ISF Senior Men’s World Championships at the same venue inSaskatoon next summer, from July 17-26, 2009.

 

 

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