Seoul, Korea- Chinese Taipei scored six unanswered runs, including a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, to win 6-5 and hand Canada their first loss at the IBAF 18U World Championship.
Canada had built a 5-0 lead through 4 ½ innings before Taipei scored two in the fifth, three in the eighth and the game winning run in the ninth.
“We got beat and you have to tip your cap sometimes,” said Canadian Manager Greg Hamilton. “They’re a tough team. I said to the guys (after the game) that you’re not going to win a world championship without some adversity.”
With the score knotted at 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth, Dayton Dawe (London, ON) allowed a one-out walk that advanced to second on a groundout. On a 0-2 pitch Taipei’s Su Chih Chieh singled to centerfield allowing the runner from second to score before Jacob Robson’s (Windsor, ON) throw reached home plate.
“Taipei swung the bats to win it in the end,” added Hamilton. It wasn’t a comedy of errors, they beat our bullpen and our bullpen is pretty good, so give them credit.”
Mitchell Triolo (Scarborough, ON) hit a solo home run to put Canada up 5-0 in the top of the fifth and starting pitcher Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, ON) was cruising through four innings before Taipei scored twice in the home half of the fifth.
Both runs came with two out on four consecutive singles to bring Taipei to within three.
Quantrill settled in for the sixth and seventh as he didn’t allow a hit or a run for two innings before walking a batter and getting a fly-out in the eighth and then giving way to Travis Seabrooke (Peterborough, ON).
Seabrooke walked two batters to load the bases with one out and Logan Seifrit (Spruce Grove, AB) came out of the bullpen to try and weather the storm.
Seifrit struck out the first batter he faced before allowing a two-run single followed by a one-run single and all of a sudden the game was tied.
Canada caught a break in the top of the ninth when Josh Naylor’s (Mississauga, ON) fly-ball was dropped in left field that saw him end up on second base.
Daniel Pinero (Toronto, ON) pinch ran for Naylor and moved ninety feet away from home after Mitchell Triolo grounded out.
After a walk to Robson, Pinero was thrown out at home plate trying to score on Kyle Hann’s (Oakville, ON) grounder to short. Nathan DeSouza (Milton, ON) struck out to end the inning paving the way for Taipei’s walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth.
“If it’s the seventh game of the World Series it’s over, but it’s not,” explained Hamilton. “We have a chance to bounce back (from this loss) and still cross-over into the next round.
“We’re not in terrible shape.”
Canada had opened the scoring in the top of the third when Brett Siddall (Windsor, ON) scored on an Owen Spiwak (Mississauga, ON) single. Siddall had singled to open the inning and advanced to third on a double from Jesse Hodges (Victoria, BC). Hodges moved to third on Spiwak’s single and scored on a sac-fly off the bat of Josh Naylor.
Canada increased their lead to 4-0 in the third when Kyle Hann scored on a Nathan DeSouza single after leading off the inning with a triple.
Gareth Morgan (Toronto, ON) reached second on a fielder’s choice, then advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored the second run of the inning when Siddall singled to right field.
Quantrill had a solid outing before giving way to Seabrooke with one out in the eighth as he went 7 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on seven hits and walked one, while fanning three batters.
Notes
-Canada will next see action against the Czech Republic tomorrow at 10AM local time (9PM ET on Sept. 2nd).
-You can follow all tournament games LIVE on Game Tracker by clicking on the link below:
http://www.ibaf.org/en/competition/53f63b49-49b3-437f-9f81-dcc5f0ab06a0/results
-Tournament schedule, rosters, stats and standings are also available at the above link.
-The Korean Baseball Federation also has created a tournament website which can be found at this link:
http://www.worldbaseball2012.kr/
-And for news, notes and updates directly from Seoul, please follow Baseball Canada on Twitter:
