San Juan, Puerto Rico- Canada was forced to endure yet another rain delay, but its significance was minimal as they cruised to a 10-1 drubbing of the Netherlands Antilles. Adam Stern (London, ON) hit a three-run homer to open the scoring in the second inning and Jamie Romak (London, ON) hit a two-run shot in the sixth inning to pace Canada offensively.
“Anytime you play a team like this you never know what can happen,” said Canadian Manager Ernie Whitt. “We wanted to get our pitchers in and we did, so it was a good work day for us.”
The win gave Canada a 3-2 record after pool play in round one which gives them a third place finish in Pool B. The second round of the tournament will begin on Friday.
Scott Diamond (Guelph, ON) was given the ball for Canada and he was exceptional on the mound. After giving up a base-hit on the first pitch of the game, Diamond was perfect the rest of the way as he tossed four innings, walked nobody and striking out five.
“With the way he threw he could probably come back on three days rest if we need him,” said Whitt speaking of Diamond’s performance.
Stern’s blast in the second inning cleared the wall in right-center field and scored Jonathan Malo (Joliette, QC) and Chris Robinson (Dorchester, ON) who had both walked to get on base.
Canada would add to their lead in the third inning when a Robinson double to left field scored Adam Loewen (Surrey, BC). Robinson then tagged up from second and advanced to third base on a fly ball from Malo and later scored on a RBI ground out from Stern.
After Diamond’s day was done, Canada used five pitchers to keep the Antilles from getting back into the game. Their lone run came during the top of the seventh off reliever Ryan Braun (Kitchener, ON) who gave up a walk and a double before a ground ball scored the Antilles only run of the ball game.
The rain hit with Canada batting in the bottom of the seventh which caused a one hour delay. This marked the third different game in five round one games where Canada has had to sit through a lengthy delay.
When the rain finally let up Emerson Frostad (Calgary, AB) scored a run in the eighth inning and David Davidson (Thorold, ON) shut the Antilles down in the ninth inning to seal the victory for Canada.
Whitt was satisfied with his team’s performance in the first round but knows that the competition will be stiffer once round two gets underway.
“I think the better competition this team (Canada) plays against the better we’ll do,” said Whitt when assessing his team’s performance thus far. “In round two we’ll see some better teams.”
Notes: At this point it is not yet known who Canada’s next opponent will be. Canada will have an off-day on Thursday October 7th before hitting the field for the start of round two on Friday October 8th…Stay tuned to www.baseball.ca for information on who Canada’s next opponent will be and where and when the game will be played… Fans can receive live updates from the game by following Baseball Canada on Twitter…Additional tournament coverage including standings, box scores and stats can be found at: http://premundial2010.prnbt.com/ and http://www.baseballdecuba.com/panamericano2010/index.html
