SAN JOSE, CUBA – Ryan Radmanovich (Calgary, Alta.) and Jeremy Ware (Guelph, Ont.) each had a homerun and four RBI as Baseball Canada’s national senior team sailed to a 13-1 thumping of the Dominican Republic today at the 2006 COPABE Americas Olympic Qualifier.
Ware crushed a first pitch fastball from relief pitcher Gilberto Calderon for a three-run homerun that represented only a fraction of Canada’s scoring in a seven-run fifth inning that helped Canada make quick work of the Dominican Republic. Ware, who hit a walk-off pinch hit grand slam to beat Panama two days ago, was 3-for-3 with two runs scored.
Eight of the nine Canadian players reached base in the fifth inning which saw Canada send 13 batters to the plate as a combination of miscues from the Dominican and hard-hit balls by the Canadians ended the game early after seven innings thanks to the international 10-run mercy rule.
Canada took an early 3-1 lead into a three-hour rain delay in the bottom of the fourth inning thanks to a solo homerun from David Corrente (Chatham, Ont.), RBI singles by Kevin Nicholson (Vancouver, B.C) and Mike Saunders (Victoria, B.C.).
After having already thrown 80 pitches in less than four innings of work, Dominican starter Ronny Rodriguez was replaced by when the teams took back to the field after the delay. The move proved to be a mistake of colossal proportions for the Dominican Republic.
Radmanovich, who was 2-for-3 with two runs scored drove a two-run homerun to left centre field to highlight a three-run fourth inning to put Canada up 6-1.
Meanwhile, Canadian starter Brett Gray was dealing with the Dominican bats with relevant ease, striking out six and giving up two hits over six strong innings in a game that was abbreviated after seven innings thanks to the international 10-run mercy rule.
Michel Simard (Charlesbourg, Qué.) sat the Dominicans down in order to close out what was a must-win game for the Canadians in order to have a shot at moving on to a final Olympic Qualification tournament next year.
With a win against Nicaragua Tuesday, Canada would put itself in excellent position to move on to the next qualification tournament.
