DOU-LIOU, Taiwan-Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) and Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) each swatted two-run homers and combined for eight RBI’s to lead Canada to a 16-3 win over the Czech Republic in the opening game of the IBAF 18U World Cup.
Morgan’s blast to left came as part of a four-run third inning, while O’Neill’s opposite field shot to right came in the seventh inning.
Both players fell one hit short of the cycle as Morgan had a single, triple and home run, while O’Neill homered, doubled and collected a single.
Twelve Canadian players combined for 18 hits on the day with six having multi-hit games.
“You have guys (like O’Neill and Morgan) hitting in the middle of the order that need to produce and that’s why they hit there,” said Manger Greg Hamilton after the game. “Overall, offensively, we took that game over and that’s what we needed to do.”
Canada wasted little time getting on the scoreboard quickly as Chris Thibideau (Dartmouth, NS) led-off the game with a single to centre and ended up on second base when the ball was misplayed by the centre fielder.
He later scored on an attempted steal when the Czech catcher’s throw to third ended up in left field allowing him to scamper home.
The Czech’s responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning coming after a pair of Canadian errors which resulted in a run scoring on an error after a double steal and another coming into count on an RBI groundout.
In the third, Morgan picked up his first hit of the game when he nailed a triple off the centerfield wall and scored easily when Owen Spiwak (Mississauga, ON) doubled over the right fielder’s head.
Canada continued to pour it on in the third as Tyler O’Neill singled to right to score Chris Thibideau from second before Josh Naylor’s (Mississauga, ON) double to left brought in O’Neill.
Morgan then drilled a two-run shot that landed well over the left field wall.
“It looked like a change-up to me and I just got a good piece of it,” said Morgan of the home run. “They didn’t really overpower us with the ‘heat’ so I just tried to stay back a little longer than I normally do.”
After the Czech’s scored twice in the first, starter Connor Noble (Vancouver, BC) cruised through four innings until the sixth where he walked in a run with the bases loaded and nobody out before getting a strikeout and 6-4-3 double-play to end the inning.
In total, Noble went six innings and did not allow an earned run. He allowed two hits and four walks, while striking out six.
In the seventh, Jake Lumley (Windsor, ON) got things going with a one-out single to centre before Tyler O’Neill hammered an opposite field home run to right field to put Canada up by six.
“Tyler is a very advanced hitter for this age,” explained Hamilton. “We expect him to produce and drive in runs in that spot (third) in the order.”
Mitch Bigras (Sarnia, ON) came out of the bullpen in the seventh and tossed three scoreless innings to preserve the win.
Canada added seven runs in the ninth with RBI’s coming from JD Osborne (Whitby, ON), Josh Naylor, Tyler O’Neill, Gareth Morgan and Daniel Procopio (Toronto, ON).
“I was pleased with today’s effort,” added Hamilton. “The games you are supposed to win are not easy to play. You try and draw up your pitching to not use many arms and try and win with your offense, and that’s what we were able to do today.”
Box Score: Canada 16 Czech Republic 3
Notes: Canada will play a doubleheader tomorrow as they take-on Venezuela at 10:30am CST (10:30pm ET 09/01) before facing host Chinese Taipei at 6:30pm CST/6:30am ET.
You can watch the game against Chinese Taipei by visiting: http://www.tiyuba.net/live/sports/wlty.html
For tournament information including schedule, rosters, stats and access to live scoring for all games, please visit: www.18ubaseballworldcup.org
You can follow the Junior National Team on their quest for gold throughout the IBAF 18U World Cup by visiting Baseball.ca or by following @baseballcanada on Twitter.
