Canada Shuts Out Dominican Republic at
IX Men’s Pan American Softball Championship 

(Parana, Argentina) The Canadian Senior Men’s National Team improved its record to 6-0 and guaranteed itself a medal with a 3-0 shutout win over the Dominican Republic at the IX Men’s Pan American Softball Championship. Sean Cleary (Harbour Main, NL) continued his dominance at the event with a one-hitter, while the Canadian hitters produced three runs on a sacrifice fly by Bryan Abrey (Richmond, BC), a triple by Brandon Horn (Waterloo, ON) and a ground out by Mathieu Roy (St. Gervais, QC). With one preliminary round game left against the host team from Argentina, Canada has already secured a spot in the first versus second playoff game and will have an opportunity to defend its 2012 title in the medal round.
 
Both teams went down in order in the first inning, but Canada opened the scoring in the second. Gregg Garrity (Courtice, ON) and Derek Mayson (North Vancouver, BC) earned back-to-back walks to start the inning, followed by a fielder’s choice to place runners on the corners. Abrey then lifted a fly ball to left field to allow Garrity to cross the plate and give Canada an early lead. The Dominicans went down in order in the bottom of the frame, and Canada went right back to work offensively in the third. Mark Johnson (Glencoe, ON) started the inning by reaching on an error and immediately scored on a triple to centerfield by Horn, who went on to score himself on a groundout to third base by Roy. The Dominican Republic was unable to get anything going as Cleary was perfect through three innings of play.
 
Team Canada got two base runners in the fourth when Jason Hill (St. John’s, NL) was intentionally walked and Abrey reached on an error, but a pair of strikeouts left them both stranded. The Dominican Republic managed their only hit of the game on a single to centerfield with two outs in the bottom of the fourth but Cleary registered a strikeout to end the inning.
 
In the fifth, Horn led off with a double to left and Roy walked to start the inning, but the next batter struck out followed by a double play. In the bottom of the frame, Cleary struck out four batters with one of them reaching on a dropped third strike. Mayson led off the fifth with a single and was replaced on the bases by Kris Walushka (Victoria, BC), who advanced to second on a groundout and stole third base, but was unable to score. Horn added a one-out single in the top of the seventh but did not advance any further, and the Dominicans went down on a pair of strikeouts and a groundout to Cleary in the pitcher’s circle to end the game.
 
Box Score: Canada 3 vs. Dominican Republic 0
 
Cleary earned his third win of the tournament with the complete game shutout and fanned 14 hitters, increasing his tournament-leading total to 45 over 21.2 innings pitched and has yet to allow an earned run. Horn had a big day at the plate as he was only a homerun shy of a cycle, connecting with a triple, a double and a single with one run driven in and a run scored. Canada’s only other hit was a single by Mayson, while Canada also drew four walks.
 
In a late score on Tuesday night, Argentina defeated Cuba by a 4-1 score. In other action on Wednesday, Guatemala (1-5) earned its first win by scoring two runs in the top of the eighth to beat Cuba (1-5) by a 3-1 score, and Venezuela (4-2) pounded out 15 hits to power past Mexico (2-4) by a score of 8-2. The United States (2-3) are currently taking on Argentina (4-1) to cap off the sixth day of competition.
 
Canada (6-0) will play its final preliminary round game against the host team of Argentina (4-1) at 8:00pm EDT on Thursday. Regardless of the outcome of that game, Canada will play in the first versus second playoff game, which is scheduled to take place at 8:00pm EDT on Friday.
 
The event website can be found at http://9panamericanosoftbol2014.com/eng/, with webstreaming available at http://9panamericanosoftbol2014.com/eng/index.php/on-line. The event can also be followed on Facebook (IX Panamericano de Softbol Masculino Conpasa Parana Argentina 2014) and Softball Argentina’s Twitter account (@SoftbolARG).

How to Follow Team Canada
Softball Canada Website: http://www.softball.ca
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