MONCTON-Round-robin play wrapped up at the Baseball Canada Cup and a quarter-final game was played in the evening which saw Saskatchewan upset Québec by a 4-3 score. Saskatchewan 4 Québec 3 (Quarter-final) Saskatchewan punched their ticket to the semi-finals with a 4-3 upset win over Québec. Saskatchewan opened the scoring in the bottom of the third with a run and later took command of the game with a three-run fourth. Braden Bessel (Saskatoon, SK) and Ryan Filyk (Regina, SK) each had RBI singles in the fourth, for Filyk it was his second RBI of the game. Québec responded with three runs in the top of the fifth to come within one. Jean-Philippe Rousseau (Blainville, QC) had an RBI double in the inning while Guillaume Gingras (Lévis, QC) hit a sac-fly to bring in another run. In the seventh, with Québec’s back against the wall, Kyle Sonntag (Saskatoon, SK) was able to get out of a bases-loaded, one out jam by striking out a batter and inducing a ground ball to shortstop to end the game. Saskatchewan will now face BC in one semi-final while Québec will play Alberta in the fifth place game. Round-robin games Nova Scotia 6 Newfoundland 1 Chris Thibideau (Cole Harbour, NS) was 3-for-4 with two RBI’s as Nova Scotia downed Newfoundland 6-1. The win gave Nova Scotia third place in Pool B and a berth in the seventh place game. Logan Arksey (Hammonds Plains, NS) tossed five innings of three-hit ball and struck out five to earn the win. Newfoundland’s Travis Taylor (Corner Brook, NL) had two hits and an RBI in the loss. BC 5 Alberta 3 BC scored twice in the bottom of the sixth to break a 3-3 tie and Joshua Croft (Powell River, BC) nailed down the save in the seventh as BC defeated Alberta 5-3. Brady Rogers (Nanaimo, BC) continued to swing a hot bat as he had two hits and two RBI’s. The win puts BC into the semi-finals while Alberta will play for fifth place. Manitoba 12 Saskatchewan 5 Manitoba capped an undefeated round-robin and claimed first place in Pool B with a 12-5 win over Saskatchewan. Manitoba was down 4-3 going into the fifth before striking for three runs. Chris Shaw (Winnipeg, MB) and Ryan Ozunko (Winnipeg, MB) led the offence as Shaw had two hits and one RBI while Ozunko had three hits and scored two runs. Marc-Andre Habeck (Winnipeg, MB) threw a complete game and struck out seven. Saskatchewan’s Aaron Barrett (Saskatoon, SK) had two hits and an RBI in loss. New Brunswick 9 PEI 8 New Brunswick broke an 8-8 tie in the top of the seventh and hung on to beat PEI 9-8. Eric Hebert (Memramcook, NB) had two hits and three RBI’s while Nigel Augustine (Eel Ground, NB) collected two hits and two RBI’s for New Brunswick. PEI received a hit and two RBI’s from Lal Hennessey (Charlottetown, PEI). Tanner Banks (Fredericton, NB) came on in relief and went six innings on the mound to record the win for New Brunswick. The win puts New Brunswick in the seventh place game against Nova Scotia while PEI will play for ninth place. Ontario 14 Québec 4 Ontario played their way into the semi-finals and clinched first place in Pool A with a 14-4 thumping of Québec via the mercy-rule. Zack Sardellitti (Maple, ON) led the Ontario attack with three hits, two runs and two RBI’s. Philippe Craig St-Louis (Gatineau, QC) had two hits, a run and two RBI’s for Québec. Daniel Procopio (Toronto, ON) was the winning pitcher while Alex Gagne (Orleans, ON) earned the save.
