Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, Qué.), was a one-man wrecking crew, leading Canada to a 10-6 win over Mexico in 13 innings, yesterday, in the tournament opener for both teams at the World Junior AAA Championships in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba.
Aumont was called on to throw in relief with the score tied at 6-6 in the bottom of the ninth inning. The 6’7” right-hander struck out seven and allowed only one hit over the next five innings in addition to crushing a two-run homerun to highlight a four-run 13th inning that gave Canada their first win of the tournament.
Mexico scored all six of their runs in the second inning. Only two were earned as four Canadian errors allowed Mexico to take an early lead.
Shayne Willson (Surrey, B.C.) was 4-for-5 with 1 RBI, Jordan Wideman (Mississauga, Ont.) was 1-for-4 with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored and David Narodowski (Vancouver, B.C.) was 1-for-4 with 2 RBI and 1 run scored to pace the Canadian attack. Brett Lawrie (Langley, B.C.) and Chase Larsson (Vancouver B.C.) were both 2-for-7 with 1 run scored.
Including Aumont, six Canadian pitchers were used in the lengthy battle. Starter Michael Goemans (Guelph, Ont.) gave up four runs (two earned) on four hits over the first 1.1 innings of play. Cory Hall (Regina, Sask.) gave up two unearned runs over the next two innings before Leslie Williams (Scarborough, Ont.), Drew Parker (Surrey, B.C.) and Sheldon McDonald (Spruce Grove, Alta.) shut-down the Mexican offence until the ninth inning where Aumont took over.
Canada will look to improve to 2-0 in the tournament when they face Spain this afternoon at 1 p.m. EST.
