DOU-LIOU, Taiwan- JD Osborne (Whitby, ON) hit a grand slam with two out in the bottom of the fifth as part of a seven run outburst and Canada went onto defeat Mexico 11-4 to keep their slim chance of advancing to the second round at the 18U World Cup alive.
“It was good to get back on our feet since yesterday was a down day for all of us,” said Osborne of the win over Mexico.
Canada was coming off losses to Venezuela and Chinese Taipei yesterday that will make it difficult to move onto the next round of the tournament.
Canada must beat Japan and hope that the Czech Republic can defeat Venezuela tomorrow.
Down 3-0 in the fifth, Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) picked up his tournament leading eleventh RBI with a single to right and Canada later tied the score after a fielder’ choice and walk coming with the bases loaded.
Osborne then stepped to the plate and deposited a ball into the seats beyond the right field wall for an opposite field grand slam.
“I had struck out twice already, so I just wanted to put the bat on the ball,” he said after the game. “I ended up getting a 2-1 count and just ripped one outside.”
Things did not look pretty for Canada up until the fifth as three Mexican runs came into count after a pair of costly errors.
After retiring Mexico in order in the top of the first, starter JP Stevenson (Hunter River, PEI) loaded the bases on a two-out walk before a throwing error at third base brought in two runs.
An error came back to haunt Canada in the fifth, this time at shortstop to put a runner on with nobody out. After a sac-bunt moved the runner to second, a double down the left field line brought in the third Mexican run of the game.
Stevenson provided his team with eight innings of work on the mound limiting Mexico to five hits, while not allowing an earned run to record the win.
“He was locating his fastball today and as the game went on he was able to keep his secondary stuff down,” explained Osborne who was behind the dish for all nine innings. “
The start was exactly what Canada needed as the bullpen would have been running on fumes after playing three games in less than 48 hours.
Chris Thibideau (Dartmouth, NS) added an RBI double, Jake Lumley (Windsor, ON) scored him with a single and Malik Collymore’s (Mississauga, ON) single up the middle brought in two as Canada tacked on four runs in the eighth to go up 11-3.
Lumley led Canada with three hits as part of a 13 hit attack, while Toby Handley (Whitby, ON) had two hits and scored two runs.
Notes: Canada will play Japan tomorrow at 12:30pm CST/12:30am ET in their final round one game. Brodie Harkness (Bowmanville, ON) is scheduled to start.
For tournament information including standings, schedule, rosters, stats and access to live scoring for all games, please visit: www.18ubaseballworldcup.org
You can follow the Junior National Team on their quest for gold throughout the IBAF 18U World Cup by visiting Baseball.ca or by following @baseballcanada on Twitter.
