Team Canada got underway
in the 2019 Premier-12 Tournament tonight, taking on Team Cuba in
Seoul, South Korea, in what turned out to be a night for pitchers.
The men's national baseball tournament, scheduled
to run until November 17th, will award a berth in the 2020
Tokyo Olympics to the team who finishes in first place among those
teams from the Americas, as well as the top team from the
Asia/Oceania region. Canada is one of four teams in Group C, with
Australia, South Korea, and Cuba the other three.
The
Canadian National Team, currently ranked tenth among the world's
national teams in baseball, edged
fifth-ranked Cuba 3-0, with Gatineau, QC native Phillippe Aumont
shouldering the lion's share of the the work on the hill for Canada.
The veteran righty
recorded eight shutout innings, allowing two hits and walking one,
striking out nine. Aldergrove, BC's Scott Mathieson, currently the
closer for Nippon Professional Baseball's Yomiuri Giants, pitched a
scoreless ninth to complete the shutout.
Michael Saunders
(Victoria, BC) drove in what would turn out to be the only run Canada
needed, scoring Eric Wood from second after Wood's lead-off double in
the fourth inning. Tristan Pompey and Rene Tosoni drew back-to-back
bases-loaded walks to add a couple of insurance runs in the seventh
inning.
Cuba's starting righty
Carlos Viera pitched around eight base-runners and mitigated the
damage very well, allowing one run on three hits, walking four and
striking out seven. Viera managed to locate only 57.6% of his 85
pitches for strikes. A total of five relievers would enter the game
after Viera walked Saunders with one out in the sixth inning.
Those five relievers would
combine for five strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on
three hits and five walks. RHP Yariel Rodriguez (1 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R,
0 BB, 4 K, 33 pitches, 19 strikes) got the relief corps off to a very
strong start, but lefty Livan Moinelo struggled during his 2/3 IP in
relief (1 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 0 K, 23 pitches, 10 strikes). RHPs Andy
Rodriguez and Vladimir Garcia combined with LHP Yudiel Rodriguez over
the remaining 1 1/3 innings, allowing only one hit and two walks,
striking out one batter on a combined 54.2% strike percentage (24
pitches, 13 strikes). Garcia faced only one hitter, walking him on
five pitches.
Aumont threw 95 pitches in
this start, 70% of them for strikes. Mathieson tossed fifteen of
eighteen pitches for strikes in a three-K ninth.
Wood led the Canada
offense, going 2-3 with two runs scored, one double, and two walks.
Tosoni, Saunders, and Tristan Pompey had one RBI, each. However,
Canadian hitters combined to leave 11 base-runners stranded.
Canada next faces off
against third-ranked South Korea on November 6th at 7 PM
(November 7th at 2 AM, Pacific Time).
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