Canadians stun Korean, 5-4 win powered by Diedrick grand slam

The Canadian national junior baseball team has come of age.

Canada held off a hard-charging South Korean squad on Sunday afternoon at the World Junior Baseball Championship, earning perhaps the country its biggest win in international play since they won the juniors in 1991, a 5-4 roller-coaster ride that began with towering grand slam, saw the pendulum swing the other way in the middle innings and end with a celebration worthy of any World Series win.

Coming off a 3-0 loss to Cuba the night before, facing the two-time defending champions was a daunting task, to say the least.

But it was a challenge the Canadians were up for, said designated hitter Philip Diedrick, who hit a monstrous two-out, opposite-field grand slam in the first inning to stake Canada to an early 4-0 lead. 

“Cuba’s always a standard and South Korea’s a standard. It just showed that we can play with everyone,” said Diedrick, whose team improved to 2-1 at the 10-day tournament, with an off-day scheduled on Monday to spend with family and prepare for Panama on Tuesday night.

“We just go into it thinking we can play with everyone and beat everyone. It’s good baseball and in this environment, one hit is going to decide the game.”

Actually, in fact it wasn’t a hit that decided this one, but a wild pitch that scored catcher Kellin Deglan from third in the fifth inning, the only time the Canadians came through in the clutch against Korean starter Chang Yoo.

Yoo took over after just two batters, filling in admirably for submariner starter Tae Yang Lee, who walked the first two men he faced and was yanked immediately, with a lefty and a righty already warming up in the bullpen.

Neither the short hook nor the fact the Koreans chose the southpaw to replace Lee came as any surprise to Diedrick, acknowledging a left-handed hitting dominance in the Canadian lineup.

“They were trying to work the percentages against us, I think,” he said. “I think it was (pre-planned). I think the righty they had in was just to see how far he could go and then that lefty that they brought in was the main pitcher for the game.”

Chang Yoo turned out to be the story of the game for the Koreans, and though hittable – he gave up 11 all told, including Diedrick’s grand slam – but he struck out 15, including a stretch of 10 in 12 batters and kept Canada from adding to its original lead or building a new one after Korea came back to tie the score in the fourth.

“The guy had good stuff. His fastball had to be upper 80s, low 90s. It had some good zip on it. He was going to his curveball and slider to keep us off balance. Later in the game he started losing his velocity and he just started sticking with his curveball and slider, and that’s what he kept striking us out with,” Deglan said.

Still, it took him a few batters to get settled in. Entering the game with runners on first and second, he struck out Dalton Pompey before walking Deglan to load the bases. He then induced a ground ball by Justin Atkinson that forced Alex Calbick at the plate, bringing Diedrick up to bat.

In a game that featured more than Canada’s fair share of opportunities, the 17-year old made sure he capitalized on this chance.

“I was down in the hole, because (Chang Yoo) had two strikes on me. I was looking for a pitch and he left one over the plate. I got good wood on it,” the Ajax, Ont. native said.

But the scrappy Koreans (2-1) aren’t just any other team, and a four-run handicap didn’t prove to be all that daunting.

Using a combination of speed and power, they clawed their way back, starting with Jin Kang’s solo shot to right with two outs in the first.

Korea threatened in the second, when the first two batters reached, but came away empty. Not so in the third.

Jin Kang slammed a two-out double to left. Il Hor followed with a single that scored Kang, and he eventually came around to score when catcher Kang Yoo hit a grounder to first that Jalen Harris fielded but threw awry trying to beat the runner to the bag.

Korea tied it up in the fourth when reliever Brian Smith (W, 1-0), who took over from struggling starter Jonathan Paquette after Smith had loaded the bases with one out, hit the first batter he faced, Jin Kang.

“I think at first our team was getting a little rattled. You could tell the crowd was getting a little upset as well. But our coaches did a good job keeping us under control and just kept us in the ballgame,” Deglan said.

Chang Yoo found his groove after the go-ahead run came across in the fifth, retiring 10 in a row at one point. He also turned them aside in the eighth, after allowing the first three batters to reach, holding Canada scoreless again.

But Smith, who struggled upon entering the game, settled down and matched his opponent pitch for pitch for much of his four-inning stay.

Smith allowed just one hit and struck out six before leaving with two outs in the eighth, paving the way for Nicholas Pivetta to shut the Koreans down, striking out U Mun to end a 1-2-3- ninth.

The South Koreans refused all interview request after the loss.

Korea takes on the Czech Republic on Monday at 11 a.m. at Port Arthur Stadium.