PEORIA, Arizona – Team Canada closed out exhibition play at Peoria Stadium with a 5-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners.
Canada led 3-2 after Owen Caissie (Burlington, ON) blasted a two-run homer to centre in the top of the seventh but three unearned runs in the bottom of the eighth put the Mariners in front for good.
BOX SCORE: Canada 3, Mariners 5
The Mariners got to Team Canada starting pitcher Rob Zastryzny (Edmonton, AB) in the second inning as they strung together three hits including an RBI double from Jake Scheiner followed by a Mike McCoy RBI single to take a 2-0 lead.
Canada got one of the runs back in the fourth when Abraham Toro’s (Longueuil, QC) two-out triple to left field brought in Edouard Julien (Québec, QC).
Canada used eight pitchers on the afternoon with Andrew Albers (North Battleford, SK), Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, QC), Indigo Diaz (North Vancouver, BC) and Cade Smith (Abbotsford, BC) each tossing scoreless innings.
Canada opens Pool C play at the World Baseball Classic on Sunday, March 12th (3:08PM ET) against Great Britain at Chase Field in Phoenix.