FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2012

Canada Opens AAU Men's International Tournament with pair of wins

(Lake Buena Vista, Florida)The Canadian Men's Development Team started the AAU Men's International Fastpitch Tournament with two wins at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, and received some great pitching as Canada's staff only gave up one hit in each game. Canada opened with a 6-0 shutout of the WWM Sports team from Florida and followed with an 8-0 run-rule win over Cutro from New York.

In the first game against WWM Sports, Canada got an outstanding pitching performance from Tyson Barkman (Abbotsford, BC) and Derek Mayson (North Vancouver, BC) as the duo combined for a one-hitter. Barkman went five innings and only gave up a bad hop single, striking out 11 batters. Mayson threw two scoreless innings and recorded four strikeouts.

Canada got on board in the first inning. Mathieu Roy (St-Gervais, QC) drew a leadoff walk, and Ben Wideman (Elmira, ON) moved Roy to second with a sacrifice bunt. Jeff Ellsworth (St. Lawrence, PEI) drove in Canada's first run with a ground ball to right field to score Roy. In the third, Canada's Brandon Horn (Waterloo, ON) lined a single to centerfield but was picked off after a failed bunt attempt. Roy singled up the middle then was thrown out stealing as Canada did not score.

In the top of the fourth, WWM got their only hit of the game when a ground ball to second baseman Jason Hill (St. John's, NL) took a bad hop and hit Hill in the face for a single. Hill left the game on the play. Ellsworth led off Canada's half of the fourth with drag bunt single and Derek Mayson laid down a sacrifice bunt that was mishandled by the pitcher, putting runners on first and second. Brennan Pokoyoway (Saskatoon, SK) moved both runners up one base with a sacrifice bunt of his own before Blair Ezekiel (Harbour Main, NL) grounded to second to score Ellsworth to put Canada up 2-0. Jeremy Tracy (Waterville, NB) then lined a single to right field to score Mayson for Canada's third run.

In the fifth, Canada scored two more runs after a one-out walk to Roy followed by a two-out two-run homerun over the centerfield fence by Ellsworth. Canada got their sixth run when Adam Hiller (Elmira, ON) hit a homerun to right field in his first at-bat as member of Team Canada.

Ellsworth led Canada's seven-hit attack with three hits and two runs batted in.

In the second game of the day against Cutro, Canada broke open a 0-0 game with eight runs in the bottom of the fifth to end the game on to the run-rule. Don Scott (Stratford, ON) went four innings in the pitcher's circle for Canada, giving up one hit and striking out six. Derek Mayson took over in the fifth and struck out two batters.

Canada was held to three hits over the first four innings. Jeff Ellsworth doubled in the first and Mayson drew a walk, but Mark Johnson (Glencoe, ON) grounded out to second to end the inning. In the second, Blair Ezekiel doubled down the left field line and was moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Adam Hiller, but Canada could not score him. In the fourth, Canada stranded two more runners as Ellsworth was safe on an error and Ezekiel singled with an infield hit.

In the bottom of the fifth, Canada scored eight runs on four hits. Brandon Horn reached on an error and moved to second on a slap bunt by Mathieu Roy, who slapped the ball through the middle. Ben Wideman drew a walk to load the bases and Ellsworth hit a hard ground ball that the shortstop came up with and could not make a play to score Horn. Mayson then hit a shot down the left field line for a double to score Roy and Ellsworth. Johnson drew a walk, then with one out, Hiller singled off the second baseman's glove to score two more runs. Ryan Boland (St. John's, NL) capped off the game with a two-run pinch-hit homerun to left field.

Canada (2-0) will complete their round-robin schedule with a game against Los Venezolanos (0-1) at 3:00pm EST on Friday. Once the round robin is complete, teams will be seeded for the playoff round beginning on Saturday.

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For more information, please contact:

Gilles LeBlanc
Manager - Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
(613) 523-3386 ext. 3105
gleblanc@softball.ca