THUNDER BAY – The rains wreaked havoc on the schedule, but not on Ryan Weather’s pitching performance.
Called into emergency duty on Saturday after the skies opened in the second inning of the United States game against Japan (1-1) on Day 2 of the 2017 Under 18 World Baseball Cup at Port Arthur Stadium, the son of former major leaguer David Weathers was nothing short of spectacular.
The younger Weathers took over in the second inning from Landon Marceaux, who was shelved after an hour rain delay, and gunned down the Japanese batters, striking out eight while allowing just a single hit to lead the Americans to a 4-0 showdown win between the top two seeds at the biennial event.
Normally a starter, Weathers said he knew the rain might mean manager Andy Stankiewicz might call on him to take over.
Despite the circumstances, it was basically business as usual.
“Going in, I knew when they got the tarp off I had 30 minutes to get my normal routine as if I was starting, so it helped me out a lot,” said Weathers, who entered with a 2-0 lead, Triston Casas lofting a second-inning 0-2 count off Kento Kawabata over the fence in left-centre, rare contact off a pitcher who struck out a whopping 15 American batters before leaving with two outs in the sixth.
Stankiewicz said Weathers was asked to be the swing guy for the U.S. squad and made the most of the opportunity, given his first chance to pitch at the Baseball World Cup.
“Boy, he stepped up big time,” Stankiewicz said.
Star first baseman Kotoro Kiyomiya, known back home as the Japanese Babe Ruth, said it was tough getting a read on the American reliever.
“The timing between the Japanese and American pitchers is somehow different. That threw us off a bit,” Kiyomiya said through a translator.
“In addition, the American pitcher did a great job in handling the switch from left batters to right batters and was surprisingly good.”
Combined, the two teams’ pitching staff mowed down 33 batters, a fact Stankiewicz would rather forget, given that 23 of the 27 outs his team recorded were strikeouts.
“Their guy was good,” Stankiewicz said. “That starter’s got courage. He wasn’t backing down. He was making big pitches and we just took advantage of some key hits.”
The biggest came in the second before the rain interrupted play.
“That kid out there was great and he had me on the ropes all night. He just made a mistake on 0-2 and I was able to put a good swing on it. I was just trying to get the job done, having a guy on third with less than two outs and trying to get a ball airborne,” Casas said. “I got a ball airborne, it just happened to go over the fence.”
The Americans (2-0) added a third run in the fifth on a heads up play by Michael Siani. Standing on second, Siani took off for third when Nolan Gorman struck out, the ball getting away from Japanese catcher Shosei Nakamura.
Noticing Nakamura wasn’t in position, Siani broke for home and easily scored. They’d add their final run in the sixth Siani singling home Brice Turang.
Japan managed just two hits all night.
Notes: The game was originally supposed to be the day’s finale, but television requirements led them to swap the game with Canada’s scheduled game with Nicaragua – which ultimately had to be rescheduled until Wednesday along with the Mexico/South Africa contest.
Korea 8, Chinese Taipei 2: Baekho Kang homered and Hyunjun Choi had three RBI to give Korea it’s second win in as many attempts. Chinese Taipei evened its record at 1-1.
Australia 15, Italy 1: Jarryd Dale drove in three runs and Jacob Green went the distance, allowing six hits before the game was called after six due to the tournament’s 10-run rule.
Cuba 3, Netherlands 0: Perez Martinez went 3-for-3 and had two RBI as Cuba stayed perfect in Thunder Bay. Aguero Cardena and Thoppe Sanchez combined on a seven-hit shutout. The Netherlands are 0-2.
