Baseball Canada’s National Junior Team prospects drew 13 walks en route to a 5-4 win over the Anaheim Angels, Sunday, improving their record to 2-2 on their 2006 Dominican Republic Tour.
Showing tremendous discipline and patience, the Canadians were able to manufacture their five runs with only four hits and without the help of any errors by the Angels.
The walk-fest started in the third inning as three consecutive free passes to David Narodowski (Vancouver, B.C.), Tyson Gillies (Langley, B.C.) and Chase Larsson (Vancouver, B.C.) juiced the bases for Brett Lawrie (Langley, B.C.) who smacked a two-run single to left field for a 2-1 Canadian lead.
The Angels then tied things up with a rare inside the park homerun in the bottom half of the inning, 2-2.
The bizarre plays continued to fall in favour of the Angels in the top of the fifth.
Jordan Wideman (Mississauga, Ont.), Matt McCarney (Kanata, Ont.), Narodowski and Gillies were each walked one after another to give Canada a 3-2 edge and put them in position to open the flood gates as Larsson stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs. But Larsson hit a sharp grounder to the Angels shortstop who promptly tagged Narodowski as he broke for third base, stepped to his left to force Gillies out at second and fired 90 feet to first base, his throw beating Larsson to the bag for a triple play.
The triple play allowed the Angels to stay in the game, but they continued to be haunted by walks. Narodowski drew his third walk of the day with the bases loaded in the seventh and, one inning later, Lawrie Tripled then scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Shayne Willson (Surrey, B.C.) for a 5-2 lead.
The Angels scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth behind a double, a single and a Canadian error, but were unable to complete the comeback as closer Leslie Williams (Scarborough, Ont.) earned the save with a hitless ninth inning.
Ryan Jenson also threw two no-hit innings (5th and 6th) for Canada, striking out a pair of Angels along the way. Starter Michael Goemans (Guelph, Ont.) threw the first four innings giving up one earned run behind three hits while striking out a pair. Left-hander Jean-Francois Ricard (Saint Eustache, Qué.) struck out four batters in two innings of relief, while giving up only two hits.
Lawrie led the Canadians at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. Narodowski finished with three walks, one run scored and an RBI, while Gillies drew two walks, scored one run and drove in another. Steve Anderson (Markham, Ont.) and Gilligan each picked up a hit, Gilligan adding a stolen base.
Canada’s next game comes against the Cleveland Indians, Monday, in Boca Chica, D.R. Game time is scheduled for
Canada’s schedule
May 25 –
May 26 –
May 27 –
May 28 –
May 29 –
May 30 –
May 31 –
