Palmerston North, New Zealand
– The Canadian Junior Men’s National Softball Team fell behind early
but fought back with five runs in the fourth inning to double up
Singapore 8-4 on the second day of competition at the 2020 WBSC U18
Men’s Softball
World Cup. Singapore surprised Argentina with an 8-3 win on Saturday
and carried that momentum with three runs in the first inning against
Canada, but
Connor Brooks (Napanee, Ont.) and Max Major (Delisle, Sask.) paced the Canadian offence to the win.
Singapore used their patience to load the bases with three walks in the
top of the first and scoring three runs on a fourth walk, an infield
single and a wild pitch. In the bottom of the inning, Major led off with
a double over the centerfielder followed by
an infield single by Mason McKay (Tavistock, Ont.) and a bunt single by
Joey Rousseau (St-Charles de Bellechasse, Que.) to load
the bases with no outs. A sacrifice fly to center by Brooks scored
Canada’s first run, while
Jackson Pegelo (Cargill, Ont.) singled up the middle to plate another run to cut Singapore’s lead to 3-2.
In the second, Singapore got a one-out single but the runner was left stranded, while Canada got a leadoff single to center by
Ryan Bicknell (Prince Albert, Sask.) who moved up to
second on an error by the centerfielder but a pair of pop outs and a
ground out left him stranded as well. After a quick third inning for
both teams, Canada got things going again in the
bottom of the fourth. Jack Becker (Drumbo, Ont.) led
off with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch, and later moved
up to third on a single off the third baseman by
Xavier Daneau (St-Celestin, Que.) before crossing the
plate on a double to left-center by Major to tie the game. Canada took
its first lead of the game when Daneau crossed the plate on a wild
pitch, and Major scored on another wild pitch to
make the score 5-3. Brooks followed up by lining a two-run blast over
the left field fence as Canada took a four run lead after four innings
of play.
Singapore got back-to-back singles in the top of the fifth to put runners on the corners, forcing a pitching change as
Reese Yantzi (Shakespeare, Ont.) came on in relief of
Brooks. After the runner on first was called out for the leaving the
base early, a wild pitch scored the runner from third to cut Canada’s
lead to 7-4 before Yantzi struck out the next two
batters. In the bottom of the sixth, McKay led off with a walk,
advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on a ball in the dirt
before scoring on a single up the middle by Brooks. Yantzi struck out
two batters and got a fly out to right in the top of
the seventh to end the game.
Box Score:
Canada 8 vs. Singapore 4
Brooks started in the pitcher’s circle for Canada and allowed four runs
on four hits and four walks, striking out four batters four plus innings
of work. Yantzi pitched three innings of hitless relief, issuing only
one walk and striking out five batters. Brooks
was the key offensive player for Canada with a two-run homerun, a
run-scoring single and a sacrifice fly to drive in four runs. Major
continued his hot hitting with a pair of doubles and an RBI, with Pegelo
singling in a run and McKay, Bicknell, Rousseau and
Daneau each contributing singles to Canada’s nine hit attack.
Canada improved its record to 2-0 while Singapore fell to 1-1. The
Canadian squad will face the Czech Republic (0-1) at 2:30pm local time
(8:30pm EST on Sunday). In a late score on Saturday, Japan beat New
Zealand 12-1 and also defeated Guatemala by that same
score on Sunday.
For more information including schedules, live scoring and streaming, visit the tournament website at
https://u18mswc.wbsc.org/en/2020.
-SC-
For more information, please contact:
Gilles LeBlanc
Manager – Marketing & Communications
Softball Canada
p: (613) 523-3386 ext. 3105 |
m: (613) 795-1996
w:
www.softball.ca | e: gleblanc@softball.ca