Tokyo - Team Canada finished off the 2010 World University Baseball Championships with a wild 15-14 extra innings victory over Chinese Taipei to claim 5th place at the tournament with a 4-2 record. This matches Canada's best ever finish at this event, as Canada took 5th place in the Czech Republic in 2008 with a record of 3-4.
The 5th place game was a re-match of the opening game of the tournament between Canada and Chinese Taipei. Canada opened the scoring in the first inning when 3B Mark Ellis (Maple Ridge, BC) hit a sacrifice fly to score RF Blake Carruthers (Calgary, AB) and that was followed by DH Ryan Fleming (Whitby, ON) who singled home CF Greg Wallace (Nanaimo, BC) to put Canada up 2-0 early. Team Canada starter, Sheldon McDonald (Spruce Grove, AB) retired the first two Taipei hitters in the bottom of the first inning before a double and a single set the stage for a 3 run homerun by the Taipei DH. Taipei tacked on another run in the second inning to go ahead 4-2 through 2 innings. Team Canada responded in a big way in the third inning, putting up 5 runs on 4 hits. The big blow was a bases clearing triple by SS Carter Bell (Courtenay, BC) that scored C Dan Welch (Victoria, BC), 1B Garrett Regan (Calgary, AB) and LF Aaron Dunsmore (Spruce Grove, AB). Once again, Taipei had an answer for Canada as they responded with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the third inning when their DH hit his second homerun of the game to knock McDonald from the game with Canada in front 7-6. Luis Castillo (Burlington, ON) came on in relief of McDonald and struck out the side to end the third inning. Castillo then promptly shut the door on the Taipei hitters for 3 more innings to give Canada a chance to win the ball game.
Canada scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings with Bell launching his first homerun of the tournament over the wall in left field in the fifth inning. With the score 9-6 Canada in the top of the seventh inning, Canada mounted a rally in an attempt to put Taipei away for good. With one on and two out, 2B Chad Marshall (Paris, ON) singled. A Carruthers single scored Regan to make it 10-6 Canada. After Wallace was hit by a pitch, Ellis delivered a three run double to stretch the Canadian lead to 13-6. Taipei did not roll over however, as they loaded the bases off Castillo with no one out in the bottom of the seventh inning. David Walkling (Nanaimo, BC) came in to minimize the damage for Canada, however a passed ball scored a run and a ground out scored a second run before Taipei's third baseman hit a two run homerun to put Taipei back in the ball game trailing 13-10. Taipei continued its comeback in the bottom of the eighth putting the first 2 runners on base which chased Walkling from the contest and Shawn Hetherington (Tsawwassen, BC) was summoned from the Canadian bullpen. After a strikeout, Taipei recorded back-to-back singles which plated two more runs to pull them within one run of Team Canada. With the bases loaded and one out, Hetherington induced the Taipei catcher to hit a slow chopper that was fielded by second basemen Marshall who made a terrific turn to SS Bell to get the lead runner and Bell made a strong throw to first base to turn a remarkable double play to end the inning. After Canada didn't score in the top of the ninth, Adam Reynolds (Guelph, ON) came on to close the game out for Canada. Reynolds recorded the save in the opening game of the tournament in which Canada defeated Taipei 3-2. The lead-off batter for Taipei in the ninth hit a single to right field that took a wild hop on RF Carruthers and bounced right over his head, allowing the hitter to reach third base with no one out. After a ground out that did not score the runner, Reynolds walked the next hitter to put runners at first and third with one out. The Taipei right fielder then hit a slow roller to Marshall at second base and his only play was to get the batter at first base, which allowed the runner from third to score and tie the game at 13. Reynolds then induced a pop out to end the inning and push the game into extra innings.
International extra inning rules put a runner at first base and second base with no out and the manager can decide where in the batting order he wants to start. Team Canada Field Manager Todd Plaxton (Saskatoon, SK) opted to put lead-off hitter Marshall at second base and number two hitter Carruthers on first base to allow his three-hole hitter, Wallace to hit with 2 on and none out. Team Canada called for a sacrifice bunt to move the runners along and Wallace got the bunt down and the Taipei pitcher made an attempt to nab Marshall at third base, however Marshall beat the throw and everyone was safe. With the bases loaded, Ellis delivered a solid single to left field to score Marshall and put Canada up 14-13. The next batter, Fleming hit a shallow fly ball to left field. Carruthers tagged at third base and beat the throw to the plate to make the score 15-13. Wallace, running from second base, made an aggressive turn at third and when the ball skipped away from the Taipei catcher on the throw from left field, he tried to score, however the Taipei pitcher backed up the play and Wallace was out at the plate. C Greg Densem (Toronto, ON), who entered the game as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning, struck out to end the inning and strand Ellis at third base. With Canada scoring twice, Taipei had to answer in the bottom of the tenth inning. With their 2 runners on base, the first Taipei hitter lined out to Carruthers in right field for the first out, as Taipei opted not to bunt and move the runners along. The next hitter singled to score a run to make the score 15-14. Reynolds then induced a pop up and a ground ball to strand the two Taipei runners and seal the 15-14 victory for Canada. Reynolds picked up the win in relief as Canada used a total of five pitchers in the game.
Offensively, Canada outhit Taipei 19-17 in a game that took almost 4 hours to play. Ellis had 4 hits and 5 RBI to lead Canada. Marshall and Carruthers each had 3 hits apiece and Wallace, Fleming and Bell had two hits each with Regan adding a single. Fleming also had 4 RBI.
"We’re disappointed that we never got a chance to play for a medal." Commented Plaxton, "However, I am very proud of the effort that our guys put in to finish up the tournament strong and claim fifth place. This matches the best finish Canada has had in this tournament and we beat a legitimate baseball country in Chinese Taipei twice, which is something we've never done before at this tournament. We finished 4-2 and there will be teams that finish ahead of us in the standings with worse records then us. We just lost the crucial game of the tournament for us and that was the quarter-final game against Korea. Our players played hard and can hold their heads high that they were great representatives of Baseball Canada".
NOTES: USA and Cuba play for the gold medal as both teams enter the gold medal game undefeated...Japan and Korea play for bronze...Team Canada hit .325 over the course of the tournament...Marshall and Ellis led the team in batting average, as each player finished the tournament with a .444 average (Marshall was 12 for 27 and Ellis was 8 for 18 with 6 walks)...Regan led the team with 4 doubles...Fleming led the team with 2 homeruns as Team Canada hit a total of 7 homeruns in the tournament...Reynolds led the team with a 2.45 ERA as Team Canada had a team ERA of 4.59 for the tournament...Reynolds, Brandon Kaye (Langley, BC), Eric Brown (Thunder Bay, ON) and McDonald picked up victories as Canada was 4-2 overall...the 4-2 record is the best finish record wise for Team Canada at this tournament, as their previous best was 3-4 in 2008...The 2012 tournament will be held in Chinese Taipei...Elmer Jerkovits, the Canadian umpire, will work first base in the gold medal game.
