Kumangaya, Japan - Team Canada took on the 2009 Fall Season Japanese Collegiate League champions from Rissho University on July 27th in the final tune-up game before the start of the 2010 World University Baseball Championships.
Rissho started their number one starter and potential number one overall pick in the Japanese professional draft coming up in October. He threw well over his 3 innings of work. Rissho capitalized on 4 walks and 2 Team Canada errors to put up 7 runs in the 3rd inning. Canada hit a lot of balls hard all afternoon, but had very little to show for their efforts. Carter Bell (Courtenay, BC) led the offense with 2 hits and Aaron Dunsmore (Spruce Grove, AB) and Garret Regan (Calgary, AB) chipped in with singles. Eric Brown (Thunder Bay, ON), Luis Castillo (Burlington, ON), Brandon Kaye (Langley, BC), Kyle Kotchie (Pickering, ON) and Shawn Hetherington (Tsawwassen, BC) shared the pitching duties for Canada and held the Rissho hitters to 8 hits and recorded 8 strikeouts. The final score ended up Rissho University 9 Team Canada 1.
Team Canada would like to thank the staff and students at Rissho University for being such gracious hosts as they prepared for the tournament. The hospitality that Canada received was unbelievable and much appreciated by the players and coaches.
Notes: Team Canada started preparation for the event in Vancouver and beat the Langley Blaze PIL team 10-0. After arriving in Japan, Team Canada trounced the Kazusa Magic (Kazusa Magic is an industrial league team that won their league last year) 14-1. Canada pounded out 16 hits including back-to-back-to-back homeruns in the 2nd inning from Mark Ellis (Maple Ridge, BC), Ryan Fleming (Whitby, ON) and Dan Welch (Victori, BC). To cap off the outburst Garret Regin (Calgary, AB) hit an opposite field grand-slam. Sheldon McDonald (Spruce Grove, AB), David Walkling (Nanaimo, BC), Taylor King and Adam Reynolds (Guelph, ON) combined to limit the Magic to 4 hits over 8 innings before the game was called due to inclement weather in the area.
