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DUNEDIN, FLORIDA – Baseball Canada’s national senior team is heading to the World Baseball Classic with a full head of steam after convincingly beating the Kia Tigers 7-1, Saturday.

The Tigers, a professional team from Korea currently training in the United States, put up a fight early thanks to a brilliant performance by starting pitcher Jim Woo Kim, who held the Canadians to no runs and just one hit while striking out four batters, including three major leaguers.

However, Kim’s first strikeout victim, Jason Bay, got his revenge on the Tigers in the bottom of the fourth, hitting a deep solo-homerun to left-center field for the first run of the game. Bay’s homerun off of reliever Hee-Girl Kim ignited a Canadian offence which had struggled up to that point.

First baseman Justin Morneau followed with a hard-hit single to right and later scored on an errant throw as Hee-Girl Kim attempted to pick him off at the base.

Canadian pitchers were efficient against the Korean batters. Starter Jeff Francis threw two scoreless innings to get the ball rolling. Chris Begg then needed only 22 pitches to retire six straight batters to preserve Canada’s 2-0 lead going into the top of the fifth. Vince Perkins and Eric Cyr then combined for three scoreless innings to shut the Tigers down through seven innings.

Canada blew the door open in the bottom half of the seventh thanks to a solid team effort, putting together a three run-inning with all the damage being done with two away. Ryan Radmanovich drove hit an RBI single to right field while Peter Orr zipped two-run single up the middle for a 5-0 Canadian lead.

Kia led the top of the eighth inning with a pair of pinch-hit doubles by Jae-Hak Shim and Ju-Hyung Kim to cut the lead to 5-1, but would get no closer.

The Canadians added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning thanks to a two-run single by Maxim St. Pierre to make it 6-1.

Canada’s next test will be its first game of the World Ball Classic, March 7^th against South Africa. Game time is schedule for 9 p.m. EST at Scottsdale Stadium.