Wednesday, November 5, 2003
Canada loses first game
By BOB ELLIOTT -- For SLAM! Canadian Baseball
The road is still a difficult one.
Two wins -- in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals -- are still needed for Team Canada to grab one of two berths at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
And that didn't change with last night's 7-2 loss to perennial amateur champ Cuba at Estadio Nacional in Panama City, Panama to finish the preliminary phase of the tournament in second place in Pool A.
The goal was to avoid facing either the United States or Panama in the quarterfinals, and the Canadians did that Tuesday by beating Mexico.
"Beating Mexico was a big win for us," said Canada manager Ernie Whitt. "The first round is all about positioning, and we're in good shape headed into the playoffs."
Canada will now play Colombia, which went 2-2 to finish third in Pool B, on Saturday.
Team USA beat Panama 3-0 before 15,000 fans to clinch top spot in Pool B. The game was marred by a pre-game fireworks celebrations which injured 10 fans and sent two to hospital, one in critical condition.
So, now in the single-elimination quarter-finals Panama will face Puerto Rico and Team USA will play Mexico Friday. Cuba will play Brazil and Canada will play Colombia on Saturday.
Canada will be seeking revenge for it was Colombia, who knocked off the Canadian National Junior Team 7-5 in the final preliminary game at Curaco at the world championships in July.
The loss bumped Canada out of third place and rather than playing Panama in the cross-over round, Canada finished fourth and played the top-ranked, unbeaten Team USA.
As for the game against Cuba, left-hander Adiel Palma went seven innings, holding Canada to three hits and one run.
Cuban centre fielder Carlos Tabares went 4-for-4 and drove in three runs. Tabares singled and scored a run in the third and singled again in the fifth. He drove in a run with a hit in the sixth and two more in the seventh with a double.
Famed for turning double plays when a lead-off man hits a ground ball to short and for turning double plays with men on with the pivot man not even opening glove -- opting to take the feed off the back of his mitt -- the Cubans flashed some leather in the fifth
Todd Betts (Scarborough, Ont.) opened with a single. Then Jeremy Ware (Guelph, Ont.) lined what off the bat looked to a sure base hit, between short and third. But Michel Edrige dove to his left, set and made an strong throw to second to start a double play.
Palma struck out Justin Morneau (New Westminster, B.C.) ending the inning.
Canada scored its first run in the seventh, when Stubby Clapp (Windsor, Ont.) opened with a triple and came home on a sacrifice fly ball to right by Betts.
Reliever Jordel Martinez took over in the eighth and gave up a homer to Ryan Radmanovich (Calgary, Alta.)
Right-hander Jason Dickson (Chatham, N.B.) took the loss.
Canada has nine homers in the three games (five in a win over Puerto Rico, three against Mexico and one against Cuba).
Pete LaForest (Gatineau, Que.) and Morneau have two each, while Jeff Guiel (Langley, B.C.), Kevin Nicholson (Surrey, B.C.), Clapp and Betts have one each.
Besides going deep, Guiel made a leaping catch at the wall to steal a home run ball off the bat of Mexico's Heber Gomez.
Nicholson and Clapp homered in the first inning against Mexican lefthander Rigo Beltran, an ex-big leaguer.
LaForest just missed hitting his third in the seventh against Mexico hitting a drive off the wall for a double and he added two more hits later in the game, doubling in the seventh and ninth innings, and scoring the Canadians final two runs.
"I love playing at this stadium," said LaForest. "The background is great."
Right-hander Mike Johnson struggled in the first, but retired 11 consecutive hitters before Manuel Velez doubled with one out in the sixth and scored on a double by Daniel Fernandez.
Puerto Rico lefty Stevenson Agosto arrived in Panama on Sunday. Said pitching coach Ed Figueroa: "He gives us another lefthander, something we could have used in the first game against Canada."
The tourney organizing committee decided Tuesday not to count the Bahamas' forfeited games in the Group A standings, meaning that Canada finishes the first round with a 2-1 record.
The committee also decided that the make up of a USA-Brazil rain out game will not be played since both teams have clinched their spots in the Pool standings. USA manager Frank Robinson was upset at the decision and as a result the teams will play an exhibition game Thursday.
