It was another early morning for the young guys. Our Canada 1 team made our way onto the bus for 8:30am to head over to our ballpark – Conjunto Esportivo Cultural in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We had a big day ahead of us with our second consecutive day with a double-header – our team starting to gel beautifully on and off the field.
The first game of the two was against USA Team 2 – a mostly veteran squad of American athletes. The second game was a finish up of the all Canada match-up that began on Day 1 and ended in the 3rd inning with a rain out.
USA Team 2 and Canada Team 1
Final score 10 – 4 Canada 1
Another early morning seemed to affect our squad to start as we came out with a bit of low energy. The US chewed away with a 4 – 2 lead by the end of the 4th. Our Canadian pitcher, Josh McKinlay, battled out there and gave our veteran Les Bernstein the perfect opportunity to do what he does best – spark a come back rally. Les lead off with a sharp double in the top of the 5th. That started a two-run rally capped off with another clutch hit from rookie Ben Gigan.
With renewed energy, our squad tightened up on both sides with solid pitching and defense. That set us up for an incredible 6th inning to put the game away. A barrage of walks and hits led to a bat around 6-run inning, putting the game out of reach for the Americans.
This was a true team win. Everyone of our 12 players got into this game and contributed. We executed, did our jobs and pulled out with a great win that took us into our second game of the day against our other home nation squad.
Canada 1 finished the Round-Robin in First Place
Canada 2 (formerly the Masters Team) entered Wednesday with a 1-0 record, having defeated Venezuela handily on Day 2 by a score of 8-1. Phil Gigan, Rob Cooper and Colin Halpern all came up with big hits in support of Mark Bendahan, who got the win. On Wednesday, Bender’s bunch faced Panama, who were defeated 9-2 by Canada 1 the day prior. It was shaping up to be another blowout.
Canada 2 came out with the bats blazing. Cooper led off the game with a double, and following a walk to Lorne Swartz, Dave Goldstein sent a moon shot into orbit off Panamanian pitcher Jacob Dottah to stake Canada to a 3-0 lead. They’d never look back. They rallied for 4 more runs before the frame ended, jumping ahead by a cool touchdown before Panama had even taken their first at-bat. Final score 8-3, improving their record to 2-0 in the process.
That set up the rematch between Canada 1 and Canada 2 later in the afternoon, a makeup for the rainout on Day 1. By ISF softball rules, the game would be resumed in the bottom of the 3rd inning, with the score tied 0-0, as it was left before the rains came on Monday. Jason Dinetz, on the mound for Canada 1 despite a severely sprained left thumb, was on form, stranding Josh Bendahan on 2nd with nobody out in the 4th after getting some big outs and key defence behind him. Canada 1 jumped on the board first, after a double by Lanny Federman and an error that allowed him to score from 2nd with 2 out to make the score 1-0. In the Top 6th, Mark Bendahan led off the inning with a triple, only to be stranded there, after Dinetz incredibly struck out two batters back-to-back before getting the final out on a pop-up to end the inning. Les Bernstein, who’s been a monster for Canada 1 all tournament long, drove in another run off Michael Bronstine to make the score 2-0 in the bottom of the 6th, which would stand up as the final score of the game.
As a result of the big win by Canada 1, they finished atop the round-robin standings and are the first seed heading into Friday’s semifinals. They await the winner of a mini round-robin between USA 2-Venezuela-Panama to determine the 4th seed. Canada 2 will play USA 1 on Thursday to determine who will be the 2nd and 3rd seeds in the playoff semis.
Highlights for Canada 1 after 4 games and a first place clinch:
- Ryan Freedman for his stamina, great defense, leadership, and great game calling
- Our pitching duo of Josh McKinlay and the impressive Jason Dinetz who has battled in early tournament injury to his catching hand
- Our leaders and player coaches Dan Berlin and Les Bernstein for walking their talk on and off the field with their veteran presence on and off the field, amazing leadership, and professionalism that has rubbed off and set the bar for our young squad.
- Rookie Ben Gigan’s bat has proved to be clutch, powerful and a key for our team’s success.
- Edi Fisher’s solid defense at short stop, great leadoff bat and leadership
- The second base platoon of slick fielding Stephen Shedletzky and solid hitting and defense from Josh Stitt has proved effective and useful
GO CANADA GO!
I love you guys and wish you nothing but GOLD!