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Baseball Canada’s three-run eighth inning helped put away Mexico 6-2 today to win the bronze medal at the World Junior AAA Championships in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba.

With Canada leading 3-2 going into their half of the eighth, a single by Kyle Orr (Victoria, B.C.) and walks to Jordan Wideman (Mississauga, Ont.) and David Narodowski (Vancouver, B.C.) loaded the bases. Orr then scored on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Gilligan (Toronto, Ont.) to make it 4-2 before Brett Lawrie smacked a 2-RBI single to go ahead 6-2.

Reliever Drew Parker (Surry, B.C.), Canada’s third pitcher of the day came into the game with one out and the tying run on second base, but induced two straight ground outs to preserve Canada’s 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the eighth.

Gilligan scored Narodowski from first with a double to left-centre field in the bottom of the sixth for the eventual winning run.

For the second straight day, Canada opened the scoring before the opposition registered an out. Lead off man Brett Lawrie (Langley, B.C.) and Chase Larsson (Vancouver, B.C.) both singled and scored on double by Jonathan Waltenbury (Bowmanville, Ont.) for an early 2-0 lead.

Mexico came back to tie the game 2-2 thanks to an RBI single by Noris Rogelio in the fourth inning and a lead-off homerun deep down the left field line by Angel Ramirez in the sixth inning.

Cory Hall (Regina, Sask.) got the win for Canada going seven innings strong while giving up the two Mexican runs behind eight hits, one walk and five strikeouts in replacement of starter Mehdi Djebbar who faced four batters in the first inning.

Lawrie was 2-for-5 with 2 RBI, Gilligan was 1-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI and Waltenbury was 1-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI to do most of the damage for Canada.

The Bronze medal is Canada’s fifth-ever medal at the World Junior AAA Championships and its first since 1997. Baseball Canada also took the gold medal in 1991 as well as the bronze medal in 1983, 1987 and 1997.