THUNDER BAY – It’s essentially win-or-go-home time for Team Canada.
Greg Hamilton’s squad on Sunday dropped its second straight decision at the 2017 Under 18 World Baseball Cup, falling 11-7 to a 3-0 Korea squad that went deep three times and took advantage of 14 free passes issued by Canadian pitchers.
It’s not an enviable position to be in after two games.
“You have to win and there’s no margin anymore. We’ve got to win games and we’ve got to win them all and if we don’t we’re not going to be playing for anything meaningful.”
At 0-2, Canada has dates left with Italy on Monday, Australia on Tuesday and Nicaragua on Wednesday, a make-up date for Saturday’s rainout.
Edouard Julien, who homered in the third with one man on to cut into an early 3-0 Korean lead, said the players know what they have to do.
“We’ve got to win every game now and we’ve got to come together as a group, not just as players,” the Quebec native said.
“Everybody needs to contribute. Pitchers, hitters, everybody needs to go in and has got to be all in.”
After a 1-2-3 start in the first, the Koreans got to Canadian starter Landon Leach in the second. A lead-off double by Baek Ho Kang and a walk to Hyun Jun Choi set the table for No. 7 hitter Dae Hyun Cho, who blasted a Leach offering out of Port Arthur Stadium for an early lead.
After Canada clawed its way to within a run, the Koreans used the long-ball method again in the fourth to re-establish a three-run lead, No. 9 hitter Jun Hwan Jang sending the ball over the fence in left to make it 5-2 and end Leach’s outing.
Michael Stovman hit a solo shot off Korea starter Been Gwak, who lasted six innings while giving up three earned runs and striking out nine.
But just as quickly the Koreans added two more on the board in the fifth and two in the seventh to go up 9-3.
That’s when things got interesting for Canada, who sent nine batters to the plate in the bottom of the seventh. Gwak departed after Jason Willow scampered to first on a dropped third strike, leaving runners on first and second.
Korean reliever Junyoung Ha struggled as his replacement, giving up RBI singles to Denzel Clarke and Lucas Parente, not helped by a parade of errors by the defence behind him. Noah Naylor walked with the bases loaded to plate the Canadians fourth run of the inning, pulling the crowd favourites to within two, down 9-7.
But after recording the first two outs of the eighth in rapid fashion, reliever William Sierra issued a walk and it came back to haunt him, No. 8 hitter Jin Won Ye hitting the Korean's third home run of the day to make it 11-7.
“It’s tough when you’re down early and you’re fighting back all the time. They continued to fight back and they stayed with it,” Hamilton said. “We got the tying run to the plate in the ninth and one swing of the bat (could have changed it.”
Canada also loaded the bases in the eighth, but couldn’t come through.
Australia 11, Nicaragua 6: Australia (2-1) jumped out to a 9-1 lead after two innings. Rixon Wingrove powered the attack with a three-run home run in the second. Zamora Hurtado and Flores Sanchez homered for Nicaragua (0-2).
Netherlands 22, South Africa 3: The Netherlands (1-2) scored 14 unearned runs in the first, 13 charged to starter Brandon Smith. Delano Selassa scored four times and drove in a pair for the victorious side. South Africa slipped to 0-2.
Chinese Taipei 9, Italy 1: Chih-Jung Liu had a 4-for-4 day at the plate, collecting two RBI for Chinese Taipei (2-1), who rode five innings of two-hit ball from Chih-Ting Wang. Catcher Ricardo Bertossi had two hits and an RBI for Italy (1-2).
Japan 7, Cuba 2: Kaito Kozono had three hits, scored twice and drove in a pair to lead Japan (2-1) back into the win column. Perez Fadragas had both RBI for Cuba (2-1), who sustained its first loss in round robin play.
United States 6, Mexico 0: The two teams combined for just three hits, the unbeaten Americans (3-0) getting a compete game, one-hit performance fom Matthew Liberatore in a game that was shortened to six innings because of rain.
