Monday, November 10, 2003
Downtown Morneau goes deep
By BOB ELLIOTT -- For SLAM! Canadian Baseball
Has Justin Morneau ever been this hot before?
"Well," the Team Canada first baseman answered with the noise of celebrations in the background, "the first two months of the year, I started off pretty well, 19 home runs, and I had 13 home runs in my final five games at Triple-A games before being called up to the Minnesota Twins."
Well, OK, has Morneau has ever been this hot before ... this close to the equator?
Morneau went deep again -- his fifth in five games as Team Canada defeated Mexico 11-1 Sunday night to win a berth in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Canada will play Cuba in a meaningless final of the Americas Olympic qualifier tonight.
Canada led 2-0 in the third inning when catcher Pierre-Luc LaForest (Hull, Que.) drew a lead-off walk. Morneau jumped on a 3-0 Mauro Nieblas pitch and deposited it over the right-centre field wall. The Canucks weren't done yet. Jeremy Ware (Orangeville, Ont.) greeted reliever Edgar Leyva with a single and Jeff Guiel (Langley, B.C.) did the same. When the centre fielder misplayed the ball Canada had runners at second and third.
Ryan Radmanovich (Calgary, Alta.) blooped in a two-run single.
That was plenty for right-hander Mike Johnson (Edmonton, Alta.) who pitched a complete game allowing a one-out homer to Luis A. Garcia deep to left in the fourth. Johnson fanned six for his second-straight win over Mexico.
Canada scored in the first against Edgar Gonzalez as second baseman Stubby Clapp (Windsor, Ont.) reached on an infield single, moved to second on a balk and scored of a LaForest double into the right-field corner.
And Canada added a run in the second when Guiel walked and moved to second on a wild pick-off attempt. With two out, DH Rob Ducey singled on a 3-2 pitched to right, scoring Guiel.
Guiel singled to centre in the fifth with one out and Radmanovich homered to right for an 8-1 lead.
LaForest made it 9-1 greeting reliever Miguel Durarte with a lead-off homer to right centre in the sixth. Morneau singled to right, Todd Betts (Scarborough, Ont.) singled to centre and Ware had an RBI single to right, scoring Morneau.
Clapp then hit a one-out homer in the seventh to complete the 11-1 win.
"I think mostly our hitting throughout the tournament was outstanding from the top to the bottom," manager Ernie Whitt said. "Every team threw left-handers against us. We did run up against a good lefty from Cuba, who held us at bay, we lost 7-2, but five of the runs were unearned."
Mexico did Canada a favor by upsetting the favored Team USA 2-1.
"I was pretty damn happy with Mexico beat them," LaForest said, "for us, we went in and had fun."
It was sweet revenge for Canada which came so close in 1995 in Edmonton and again in 1999 in Winnipeg.
"I guess it justifies all the work that we put into it,," Clapp said, "we came here to win an Olympic berth for Canada. There were no ifs, ands ors. We were going to be there."
And when Clapp circled the bases and jumped into the arms of his excited teamates the next important step Canada would take would be walking in the opening ceremonies.
