AJAX, Ontario – Canada will get the opportunity to defend their Pan Am gold medal on home soil tomorrow night at President’s Choice Pan Am Ball Park against the United States in a rematch of the 2011 championship game.
The Canadians booked their ticket to the gold medal game by defeating Puerto Rico 7-1 in a one-sided contest where starter Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, QC) worked eight shutout innings, while Jordan Lennerton (Langley, BC), Brock Kjeldgaard (London, ON) and Tyson Gillies (Vancouver, BC) all homered.
Aumont was the story of the game for Canada as he turned in a dominant performance, barely getting tested by Puerto Rico, as he scattered just three hits and walk, while striking out eight. He began the game retiring 12 batters in a row before giving up back-to-back singles to lead off the fourth, but left both runners stranded after recording a pair of strikeouts and getting a fly-out to centre.
"He has the ability to do that every time he goes out there,” said Canadian Manager Ernie Whitt. “Tonight was special; he was throwing strikes, he was changing speeds. He has to throw strikes and that's what he did tonight."
Brock Dykxhoorn (Goderich, ON) took over for Aumont in the ninth and allowed three hits that brought in a Puerto Rican run before he struck out the final batter of the game to send the capacity crowd home happy.
Canada received plenty of offence early on scoring two runs in each of the first, second and third innings, and adding one run on a Tyson Gillies solo homer that led off the fourth.
"It felt great,” said Whitt of the early offensive production from his team. “Anytime you are in these types of tournaments, you want to score first then continue to add on and prevent the other team from getting any life."
"Any time you can go up by a lot of runs it's a big help,” added Gillies. “The other team begins to lose confidence and we kept chipping away getting further and further ahead."
Gillies’ homer was the third of the evening for Canada as Jordan Lennerton belted a two run shot to put Canada up by two in the first before Brock Kjeldgaard hit his third of tournament with a two run shot in the third. In between the two homers, Pete Orr (Newmarket, ON) singled to drive in two as part of a 2-for-4 day at the plate.
Earlier in the day, the United States got by Cuba, 6-5 to punch their ticket to the gold medal game. Canada will look to keep playing the same way they have all tournament knowing the US will be looking to exact some revenge from their loss in 2011.
"The same plan as today,” answered Gillies when asked about the game plan heading into the gold medal contest. “They will be coming hungry because we took the gold in 2011."
Up Next: Canada will host the United States tomorrow in the gold medal contest beginning at 7pm ET… The game will be streamed live on panam.cbc.ca…For tournament information including statistics, please click here.
Follow Team Canada
