San Juan, Puerto Rico- When Canada was faced with a must-win game; they delivered with a victory by beating Puerto Rico 14-6 on a humid evening at Hiram Bithorn Stadium. The win wrapped up fifth place for Canada and most important secures a berth for Canada at next year’s Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico and the World Cup at a site that is yet to be determined.
“That was the objective (qualifying) coming in here,” said Greg Hamilton (Ottawa, ON) Coach and Director of National Teams with Baseball Canada. “It wasn’t easy but we got it done.”
In a game that started out as a see-saw battle, Canada pulled ahead for good in the seventh inning by putting up five runs to take a commanding lead. Overall, Canada had fourteen hits including homeruns from Chris Robinson (Dorchester, ON), Adam Stern (London, ON), Scott Thorman (Cambridge, ON) and Jamie Romak (London, ON) who smacked his fifth of the tourney.
Robinson was Canada’s most impressive offensive player going 5-for-6 with three RBI’s. His homerun came at a key time in the fifth inning to put his team in front 3-1.
“I was looking for a pitch up that I could drive,” said Robinson of the opposite field blast. “I didn’t even know it was out of the park until I heard the bullpen scream.”
Scott Diamond (Guelph, ON) started on the mound for Canada and was effective through four innings by only allowing one run and three hits. In the fifth inning, Diamond was removed from the game and in came Chris Kissock (Trail, BC) to work out of a jam with only one out and runners on first and second base. Kissock retired the first batter he faced but walked the bases loaded, and followed that up by walking in a run and then giving up a two-run single.
Tom Boleska (Burlington, ON) relieved Kissock and got out of the inning, but Canada found themselves trailing by a run for the first time in the game.
The Puerto Rican lead was short lived when Stern walked to the plate and delivered a solo homerun over the wall in right field to tie the game.
“We’ve got a lot of big game players on this team,” continued Robinson. “Sterny had a big hit for us tonight and a lot of guys showed up when we needed them to.”
Canada continued the onslaught in the eighth inning when Thorman joined the homerun parade by launching a two-run shot deep over the fence in right centre field. After Robinson and Jonathan Malo (Joliette, QC) reached base with singles, Romak put the game completely out of reach with a homerun to left field.
“It was a battle, a tough tournament for us,” said Manager Ernie Whitt when summing up his team’s performance. “We basically didn’t swing the bats (well) for two games, but we came here wanting to qualify and we did that.”
Trystan Magnuson (Vancouver, BC) and Jimmy Henderson (Calgary, AB) combined to close the door on Puerto Rico the rest of the way.
“It was a big win today for guys and for this program,” explained Robinson. “A lot of us have been here for a while and to qualify here is something special.”
Notes: Canada will participate in the Pan Am Games for the first time since the event was held on home soil in Winnipeg back in 1999…The semi-final match-ups will feature undefeated Team USA taking on the Dominican Republic and Venezuela squaring off against Cuba…For those interested in following the remainder of the tournament, please visit: http://premundial2010.prnbt.com/
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