Seoul, Korea- Despite a 9-3 loss to host South Korea, Canada has booked a ticket to Saturday’s gold medal game at the IBAF 18U World Baseball Championship.
Canadian players were informed prior to taking on South Korea that they had already clinched a spot in the tournament final.
“In the big picture of things (today’s) game didn’t matter, it was a situation where we just had to get through it,” said Canadian Manager Greg Hamilton. “Tomorrow’s game is what matters.”
Canada finished the second round with a 3-2 record and will play the United States in the gold medal game.
The gold medal game will be the first for Hamilton since he took over the Junior National Team program back in 1998. The JNT program has seen the likes of Justin Morneau, Russell Martin, Adam Loewen and Brett Lawrie wear the red and white, but this is the first time since 1991 that Canada will pay for gold at this event.
“For the program this is very significant,” said Hamilton. As I said to the guys it’s not every day you get to play for a world championship.
“There are only two teams that get to play for a world championship every two years. It’s tough, it’s not easy.”
Hamilton has come close to reaching the gold medal game in the past as he lost semi-final games in 1997, 2006 and 2010. His team’s won bronze in 1997 and 2006, but the gold medal game has eluded his clubs until now.
“We’ve been close a few times, we’ve played in a lot of semi-final games,” he said. “In 2010 in Thunder Bay we lost to Chinese Taipei in the semis as we couldn’t solve a pitcher. In 2006 (in Cuba) we had Phillippe Aumont on the mound and lost to Korea.”
“We’ve had some heartbreak, but hopefully we’ll be smiling after tomorrow.”
Pitching Coach Chris Reitsma was a member of the 1995 JNT that played in the IBAF 18U World Championship in Cape Cod, MA. Reitsma went onto a successful career in the big-league’s and shared his memories of representing Canada for the first time.
“It was a dream come true putting that Canada jersey on for the first time and I remember it like it was yesterday,” he said. “Hopefully these kids are going to look back with fondness on this opportunity in Korea.
“To get to play for a gold medal is truly something special.”
Reitsma has been a member of the coaching staff since October 2010 when the process of preparing for this world championship began with a training camp in Orlando, Florida.
Since then the team has participated in four additional training camps in Orlando, played in the Dominican Summer League for ten days on two occasions, travelled to Cuba for an exhibition series and qualified for this world Championship by finishing in second at last year’s COPABE 18U Qualification Tournament in Cartagena, Colombia.
“It has been a very rewarding experience for me,” said Reitsma. “To see kids where they are at age 16 and watch them mature in front of you and see the product that you get at age 18 – it’s been a lot of work and a lot of fun.
Canada will face a stiff challenge in the United States – a team that Canada beat earlier in the tournament 1-0 in extra innings.
“We like our arms for tomorrow, we like our opportunity for tomorrow,” said Hamilton. “We have everyone ready (to pitch) that we want for tomorrow and we’re excited.”
Hamilton believes his team is ready for the challenge ahead and believes that they have the ingredients necessary to become world champions.
“We have a team that can pitch, a team that can play defence and we have dimension to our offence,” he said. “We’ve got some right/left balance in our (batting) order, some speed at the top of the order and we have experience on the mound.”
“I think it’s a pretty balanced club that’s capable of playing with anyone in the world.”
Notes
-You can follow tomorrow’s gold medal game (6pm local time, 5am ET), LIVE on Game Tracker by clicking on the link below:
http://www.ibaf.org/en/competition/53f63b49-49b3-437f-9f81-dcc5f0ab06a0/results
-Rosters, stats and standings are also available at the above link.
-The Korean Baseball Federation also has created a tournament website which can be found at this link:
http://www.worldbaseball2012.kr/
-And for news, notes and updates directly from Seoul, please follow Baseball Canada on Twitter:
