Yokahoma, Japan - In a battle for first place in Group A at the 2010 World University Baseball Championships, Team Canada came out flat against Team USA and dropped an 8-1 decision. The loss puts Canada in second place in Group A and sets up a quarter-final game with Korea, the third place finisher in Group B. The quarter final is scheduled for August 3rd at 2pm local time in Japan.
Canada was unable to muster much offense against Matt Barnes, the American starting pitcher. He used his fastball to his advantage and Canada managed only 3 hits through 7 innings. The USA opened the scoring in the second inning off Canadian starter Eric Brown (Thunder Bay, ON) to take a 1-0 lead. Brown was replaced by Luis Castillo (Burlington, ON) to start the third inning and Castillo kept the US hitters off balance in the third and fourth innings. In the bottom of the fourth, 3B Mark Ellis (Maple Ridge, BC) worked a lead-off walk and advanced to second on a throwing error by the American first baseman. Ellis popped up and attempted to advance to third base and was called out on a very close play at third. The next batter Aaron Dunsmore (Spruce Grove, AB), hit a ground ball that would have scored Ellis to tie the game at 1. The USA used this momentum and some sloppy defence by the Canadians to score 2 runs in the fifth and 2 more in the sixth inning to break things open. The Americans added single runs in the seventh and eighth innings to stretch the lead to 7-0. Canada put together a rally in the bottom of the eighth inning as the USA went to their bullpen. RF Blake Carruthers (Calgary, AB) led off the inning with a double into the right field corner. With 2 out, CF Greg Wallace (Nanaimo, BC) singled to put runners at first and third. Ellis walked to load the bases and DH Ryan Fleming (Whitby, ON) worked another walk to score Carrurthers to make the score 7-1. With the bases loaded, the USA made a pitching change and lefty Nick Ramirez came in and struck out LF Nic Lendvoy (Langley, BC) to end the inning. The USA added another run in the ninth inning to make the final USA 8 Canada 1.
The USA outhit Canada 11 to 5. Carruthers led the offense with 2 hits with Wallace, Lendvoy and C Dan Welch (Victoria, BC) also adding hits. Canada committed 4 errors on the evening.
Notes: Canada's quarter-final opponent, Korea, was 1-2 in the round robin with losses to Cuba and Japan and a victory over China...Other quarter-final match-ups include, USA vs. China, Cuba vs. Sri Lanka and Japan vs. Chinese Taipei. The winner of Canada's quarter-final game will play the winner of the Cuba vs. Sri Lanka game.
