OSAKA, Japan -It did not look pretty for eight and a half innings, but in the end Canada overcame a four-run deficit and scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth to win 11-10 and avoid a loss against winless South Africa.
Canada had already booked a ticket to the Super Round, but was forced to play the final game of Group B today after yesterday’s game was rained out. Even though the teams played two and a half innings yesterday, the game began from scratch.
“It was a game that, other than playing had no meaning but pride, which is important, but the game had no meaning in the context of the tournament” said Canadian Manager Greg Hamilton. “They (South Africa) played with house money, those teams, they always do. They played well and we struggled.”
Box Score – Canada 11 South Africa 10
Since Canada had to play when all other teams enjoyed a day off, and with three Super Round games coming up, the team made an effort to save pitching and used position player Peter Hutzal (Calgary, AB) on the mound who gave his team four and two-thirds innings on the mound.
“We were not in a position where we could use pitching (today),” Hamilton explained. “We had no choice but to do that. We could have run out some of our (regular) pitchers and probably win comfortably, but it would have hurt us the rest of our tournament.”
With Canada up by a run, South Africa used a five run sixth and tacked on two runs in the seventh to go up by six.
Josh Naylor (Mississauga, ON) had drilled a two run homer in the third and laced an RBI double to right in the fifth to account for three out Canada’s four runs.
An RBI single from Isaac Deveaux (Montréal, QC) in the seventh followed by an RBI double from Royce Ando (Mississauga, ON) in the eighth brought Canada to within four and set the stage for the five run ninth.
After a pair of walks to lead off the inning, Deveaux scored both runners with a double to right-centre and Andrew Yerzy (Toronto, ON) followed with a two-run homer to right that tied the score. After a pitching change, Demi Orimoloye (Orleans, ON) walked and proceeded to steal second and third before Ando came to the plate with the bases loaded and drilled a single through a drawn in infield that scored Orimoloye with the winning run.
“I think (today) was a character win because you can very easily not stay together, start nit picking each other and pointing fingers,” continued Hamilton. “That game was as predictable as it’s ever going to get. We had to use a position guy on the mound, so it’s all set up for that. At the end of the day, you just hope you can get through it and survive it, and (today) we survived.”
Canada will open the Super Round tomorrow against Japan (5:30pm JST/4:30am EDT) and follow on Friday against Australia (12pm JST/12am EDT) with both contests being played at Maishima Stadium before facing the United States on Saturday (6pm JST/5am EDT) at historic Hanshin Koshien Stadium.
Canada will start the Super Round with a 0-2 record after losses to Cuba and South Korea in the First Round. At the conclusion of the Super Round, the top two seeds will meet for gold, while the third and fourth seeds will meet to decide the bronze medal. Both medal games will take place at Hanshin Koshien Stadium on Sunday.
“We’re going over with two good teams on our side. I don’t think there’s any shame in losing to South Korea or Cuba,” said Hamilton. “We’re going to see three pretty good teams coming over from the other side and we’re going to see if we can make some noise.
“We belong on the field with those guys, we’re going to compete and there’s plenty of incentive so we’ll see where we can get to.”
UP NEXT
Canada’s game tomorrow against Japan will be streamed live by clicking on the link below…RHP Brady Moxham (Oakville, MB) is expected to start on the mound for Canada against unbeaten Japan who went 5-0 to lead Group A.
Live Stream
Live Scoring
Tournament website (Standings, Results, Stats)
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