OTTAWA-The Canada Games officially opens on Friday (August 2nd) bringing together 4,200 athletes competing in 20 different sports over the course of 16 days.
The baseball competition begins on August 3rd with teams representing all 10 provinces vying for a National Championship.
Unique to the Canada Games this year, an event that occurs once every four years is that the games will replace the 2013 Baseball Canada Cup which features some of the top 17 and under players across the country.
The format will see two pools, Pool A and Pool B, with teams in Pool A playing a double round-robin and teams in Pool B playing a straight round-robin.
At the end of pool play, the second place team in Pool B will meet the third place club in Pool A in a quarter-final game with the winner facing the second place team in Pool A in one semi-final.
The other semi-final will feature first place in Pool A taking on first place from Pool B.
Semi-final winners will square off for the gold medal at 6pm ET on Friday, August 9th at Sherbrooke’s Amédée-Roy Stadium, while the bronze medal contest will be played prior to the gold medal game at 1pm ET.
The 2009 Canada Games, held on Prince Edward Island, saw Québec earn an 8-1 victory over Alberta to win the gold medal as the event was played as a 19 and under tournament.
Ontario will arrive in Sherbrooke as the two-time defending champs from the most recent editions of the Baseball Canada Cup (2012, 2011).
Joining Ontario in Pool A will be last year’s Baseball Canada Cup silver medalists BC, host Québec and the always competitive Alberta side.
In the 2012 Baseball Canada Cup, Manitoba emerged from Pool B before losing to Québec in the bronze medal game, while Saskatchewan made a Cinderella run at the 2011 Cup before bowing out to Ontario in the gold medal game.
Both Manitoba and Saskatchewan will be joined by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador to form Pool B.
Action begins on August 3rd at three different locations including Amédée-Roy Stadium in Sherbrooke as the main venue, Julien Morin Stadium in Coaticook and Parc de l'Est in Magog.
Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, BC and Québec will all play two games on the first day of competition with an evening match-up between BC and Québec in Coaticook sure to be attended by many local supporters.
Live scoring for all of the Canada Games baseball competition will be available courtesy of Pointstreak and accessible by visiting www.baseball.ca/games. A complete schedule, along with rosters, scores and news will also be available.
Certain games at Amédée Roy Stadium will be available at www.canadagames.tv . Please click here to view the broadcast schedule.
