Sarasota, Florida-Rene Tosoni (Port Coquitlam, BC) hit a solo home run as Canada defeated the Baltimore Orioles Fall Instructional League club 3-0 in a game that was called in the top of the sixth due to rain.
The win concluded Canada’s exhibition series and training camp in advance of the World Baseball Classic Qualifier which gets underway on Thursday in Regensburg, Germany.
“Overall I’m pleased with our camp,” said Manager Ernie Whitt. “We were able to get our guys some at-bats and our pitchers some innings on the mound.
“Now it’s time to head over to Germany and see what we’re up against.”
Canada opened the scoring in the top of the first when Tyson Gillies (Vancouver, BC) scored from third base on a ground-out from Tim Smith (Toronto, ON).
Gillies had led-off the game with a double down the right field line and later tagged and advanced to third base on a fly-out to right.
Canadian starter James Avery (Moose Jaw, SK) got out the first inning after giving-up a one-out walk by getting a pop-out to third base and recording a strikeout.
Avery tossed thirty-eight pitches in three, no-hit innings and struck-out two batters.
In the fourth Canada added to their lead when Shawn Bowman (Port Moody, BC) hit an RBI single to left field that scored Tim Smith with one out in the inning.
Andrew Albers (North Battleford, SK) came out of the bullpen to start the fourth inning and allowed a one-out walk before recording two strikeouts to end the frame.
The Orioles collected their first hit of the ballgame in the fifth when Albers gave-up a two-out single with a runner on base, but managed a pop-out to first to end the inning.
Before the rains hit Tosoni belted a solo homer over the fence in right field to put Canada up by three.
Players, coaches and staff will fly to Regensburg tomorrow where they will hold two practices before opening the tournament on September 20th against Great Britain at 7pm local time (1pm ET).
“I’m confident in our group,” added Whitt. “We have a veteran team that has been through these types of tournaments before so I’m looking for good things.”
All of Canada’s games including the opener against Great Britain can be seen on Rogers Sportsnet One.
