SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA – Baseball Canada’s National Senior rallied to narrowly avoid being upset by a pesky South African team, Tuesday Night at Scottsdale Stadium, hanging on for a wild 11-8 victory in its first-ever World Baseball Classic Game.
Three outs away from pulling off the biggest upset of the World Baseball Classic, South Africa and its 17-year-old reliever Jared Elario couldn’t prevent a four-run, ninth inning rally from Canada, who had to look to its bench for a hero.
After entering the game late as a defensive replacement, Ryan Radmanovich (Calgary, Alberta) hit a 430-foot triple off the base of the wall in straight-away center to lead-off the ninth inning for Canada. Radmanovich was cashed in by a double to right by Adam Stern (Port Stanley, Ont.) to tie the game. Elario continued to struggle, throwing two wild pitches with Canadians on third base and giving up an RBI double to reserve outfielder Sebastien Boucher (Ottawa, Ont.) to run the final score out to 11-8.
“How was that for an emotional roller coaster to start the tournament?” said Canada’s second baseman Stubby Clapp (Windsor, Ont.). “This was probably a good game for us, not only because it was back and forth and we fought back to win the game, but because it lets us realize that anything can happen in a tournament like this.”
After taking a 3-0 lead, South Africa came back to take a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. Canada came answered with four runs in the seventh to regain a three-run lead, but with the bases loaded, South African second baseman Paul Bell cleared the bases with a double down the left field line to put South Africa up 9-8 going into the ninth inning. Bell went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, one run, one walk and four RBI.
Corey Koskie (Anola, Manitoba) hit a two-run blast to right in the top half of the seventh inning to help Canada take a temporary 7-4 lead. Coskey finished the game 1-for-3 with two RBI, one double and three walks.
"Usually, this is still early in Spring Training and you don't play with this intensity," said Koskie. "There was no 75 to 80 percent out there today. It was 100 to 110 percent all the way through. Nobody was leaving anything behind. You saw that with our guys, and their guys.”
After a relatively uneventful first four innings where the two teams combined for only three hits, the offences took over and the wheels came off for almost every pitcher that came into the game for both teams. Canada got on the board first with a three-run fifth highlighted by a two-run double to right from Designated hitter Matt Stairs (Fredericton, N.B.). South Africa came back to take the lead going into the sixth thanks in part to a bases clearing double from shortstop Brett Willemburg with the bases loaded.
The game featured 16 walks, 8 wild pitches (all by South Africa), three hit batsmen and five errors. There were 47 base runners on the game behind only 27 hits. The game went 3 hours and 38 minutes, giving Canada just over 12 hours to prepare for their second game of the tournament.
“We’ve got the win now and what we have to do is go home, get rested and be ready to face the Americans tomorrow,” said Stern.
Canada will face the United States in the second match-up of the World Baseball Classic Wednesday at 4 p.m. EST at Chase field in Phoenix, Arizona. Adam Loewen will get the ball for Canada while Dontrelle Willis will start for the Americans.
