(Parana, Argentina) The Canadian Senior Men’s National Team improved its record to 2-0 at the IX Men’s Pan American Softball Championship with a 3-1 win over Mexico. Devon McCullough (Saskatoon, SK) and Paul Koert (Brooklin, ON) shared pitching duties for Canada and held Mexico to three hits, while the offence was able to put the ball in play and took advantage of a pair of errors to score two runs in the top of the fifth before adding an insurance run in the seventh.
After a hard-fought win over Guatemala in eight inning yesterday, the Canadians looked to jump on Mexico early as Mathieu Roy (St. Gervais, QC) and Jeff Ellsworth (St. Lawrence, PEI) hit back-to-back one out singles in the top of the first to put runners on the corners, and Ellsworth stole second to put two in scoring position. However, the next two batters struck out to end the inning. The following inning, Canada got two more runners on base with a pair of walks but did not score, and went down in order on three groundouts in the top of the third. Meanwhile, McCullough retired all nine batters he faced over the first three innings as the game remained scoreless.
In the top of the fourth, Bryan Abrey (Richmond, BC) hit a deep fly ball off the left field wall that rolled away from the outfielder and raced around the bases, but was called out on the relay to the plate going for an inside-the-park homerun. In the bottom of the frame, McCullough kept rolling by getting a fly out and striking out two to keep Mexico off the bases. The red and white was able to open the scoring in the top half of the fifth. Kris Walushka (Victoria, BC) drew a one-out walk and advanced to third on a single by Brandon Horn (Waterloo, ON), and Roy followed up by hitting a ground ball that the first baseman dove for and threw to the plate but the throw was off line to allow Walushka to score the first run of the game. After a fielder’s choice was thrown away at second base to load the bases, Horn later scored on a passed ball to give Canada a 2-0 lead.
Looking to get back into the ball game, Mexico got a leadoff homerun by cleanup hitter Gustavo Priskher to cut the lead to 2-1, followed by a single to quickly chase McCullough from the game. After the runner stole second, Koert got a big strikeout, knocked down a ground ball back to him for the second out and induced a fly ball to right to preserve the one-run lead. Canada got a two-out single by Joel Langford (Orleans, ON) in the top of the sixth but a fly out ended the inning, and Koert struck out the side in the bottom of the frame.
In the top of the seventh, Horn led off with a double down the first base line, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground ball by Ellsworth by beating the throw to home for an important insurance run. Mexico got a one-out single in the bottom of the inning and later added a walk to put two runners on base, but Koert notched another big strikeout to end the game.
Box Score: Canada 3 vs. Mexico 1
McCullough picked up the win in the pitcher’s circle, allowing one run on two hits and striking out five in four innings of work. Koert allowed one hit and one walk with five strikeouts in three innings of relief. At the plate, Horn had a double, a single and scored two runs, while Abrey notched a triple. Roy, Ellsworth and Langford each chipped in with a single.
In other scores on the second day of competition at the IX Men’s Pan American Championship, Cuba scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to edge the Dominican Republic 3-2 and the United States earned a 2-1 win over Venezuela in nine innings. Argentina and Guatemala are squaring off in the late game.
Canada (2-0) will play its next game against Venezuela (1-1) at 5:30pm EDT on Sunday.
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