Canada got a methodical 10-0 win in a game shortened to eight innings by the mercy rule.

Canada got all the runs they needed on a three-run home run by 1B Scott Thorman in the fourth inning. The required runs for the mercy rule came on a two-run home run in the eighth inning by RF Mike Saunders.

Chris Begg (Niagara), Tim Burton, and Rheal Cormier (CC of Rhode Island) combined for the shutout. The Chinese had a chance in the bottom of the eighth to break up the shutout and extend the game into the ninth inning; runners on second and third with no outs. However, Cormier, after giving up a double to the first batter he faced, got three straight strikeouts to end the game.

Canada’s next game is against Cuba, at 6 AM EDT on Thursday.

Update: Brooks McNiven (British Columbia) gets the start against Cuba. Mike Johnson will start against South Korea on Friday, and James Avery (Niagara) starts against the USA on Saturday.

The Okotoks Dawgs and the Swift Current Indians will meet for the Western Major Baseball League final. The best-of-five series starts in Swift Current, SK on Wednesday,

The Dawgs won three of four against the Sherwood Park Dukes in the West Division final. Their leading hitter is now Lee Darracott (Campbellsville; .353, 4 HR, 27 RBI). Jake Bottari (College of Idaho; 6-0, 0.71 RBI, 54 K) continues to do great things on the mound.

The Indians swept the Regina Red Sox in the East Division final. They are lead by Conrad Funk (Winthrop; .397 regular season, 1 HR, 36 RBI), and Nick Bratney (George Fox; 6-0 regular season, 1.18 ERA, 24 K).

WMBL official site: http://www.wmbl.ca/

Article by Bob Elliott of the Canadian Baseball Network: Get to Know Team Canada

Excerpt: “Meet Mr. Average hitter for Team Canada: Emerson Frostad (Lewis-Clark State), 25, of Calgary Alta. A Texas Rangers farmhand, Frostad has split this season between Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Oklahoma in the Texas Rangers system. He had played 486 games in five seasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Article by Bob Elliott in the London Free Press: Big expectations are off Canada’s plate

The article focuses on Mike Saunders of the Mariners organization, who plays for the Tacoma Rainiers of the AAA Pacific Coast League.

The Division Finals of the Western Major Baseball League start on Thursday, August 7, and the matchups are the Sherwood Park (AB) Dukes vs. the Okotoks (AB) Dawgs, and the Regina (SK) Red Sox vs. the Swift Current (SK) Indians.

The Dukes are led by Dan Grant (Northern Iowa; .403, 4 HR, 38 RBI) and Casey Barnes (Kansas Wesleyan; 5-4, 2.76 ERA, 67 K). They defeated the Saskatoon Yellow Jackets three games to one in the first round.

The Dawgs have Manny Kumar (Grambling State; .336, 3 HR, 28 RBI) and Jake Bottari (College of Idaho; 5-0, 0.84 RBI, 43 K). They swept the Lethbridge Bulls in the first round. Read the rest of this entry »

Stubby Clapp

Stubby Clapp, who will be playing second base for Canada in the 2008 Summer Olympics, is writing a blog about the experience. You can see it at canadianbaseballnetwork.com.

This will be Clapp’s second Olympics. He played for Texas Tech, and played 20 games for the Saint Louis Cardinals in 2001. He played for the AAA Memphis Redbirds for several years, and they retired his jersey. The last pro team he played for was the Edmonton Crackers Cats, which was in the independent Northern League at the time. He is currently on a leave of absence from the Class A Lexington Legends, where he is a hitting coach.

Alex White. Photo by Bob Broughton.

Team Canada, representing Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), defeated the Czech Republic, 3-1, at AVG Draci Brno Field, in Brno, CZ. Team Canada finishes the tournament 3-4, at the 4th annual World University Baseball Championships.

Team Canada won the 5th Place Consolation Game with strong pitching and a 3-run second inning. Mathew Wilson (Bucknell) continued to pitch strong for Head Coach Terry McKaig. Wilson, coming off his 8 strong innings against the United States where he allowed no earned runs and struck out 4 US hitters, pitched five shutout innings against the Czech Republic, striking out 6, while giving up one first inning single. The bullpen continued to impress all at the World University Championship as Adam Reynolds (Guelph), Scott Webster (British Columbia) and Kris Dabrowiecki (Northeastern) all pitched shutout relief innings, giving way to Team Canada’s closer Hiarali Garcia (Kansas) who gave up a walk and hit before settling down to record Canada’s first save at the tournament. Read the rest of this entry »

Jeff Vickers

Team Canada, representing Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), were defeated by Team Korea, 5-4, at Skokani-Olomouc Field, in Olomouc, CZ. Team Canada finishes the round robin, 2-4, at the 4th annual World University Baseball Championships and will face the host, Czech Republic, in Sunday’s 5th Place Game, at 1:00 PM (7:00 AM EDT).

Team Canada knew coming into the game they needed to win the game to force a three-way tie with Chinese Taipei and Korea and then let the tournament rules decide which two teams would advance to the Medal Rounds. The Canadians received word that the United States defeated Chinese Taipei, 3-2, in 11 innings, earlier in the afternoon, causing the potential three-way tie. Canada would need another strong start to keep their medal hopes alive, but it was Korea who had the first of two big innings in the game as they would score four runs in the second inning on two hits, an error and a bad bounce in the outfield that went over the left fielder’s head enabling three runs to score. Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Hardy. Photo by Bob Broughton.

Team Canada, representing Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), defeated the Czech Republic, 4-0, at AVG Draci Brno Field, in Brno, CZ. Team Canada improves to 2-3 at the 4th annual World University Baseball Championships while the Czech Republic falls to 1-4.

Team Canada came into tonight’s game knowing they needed a victory to keep their medal hopes alive. That is exactly what the team did; they played a complete game pitching, hitting and defense to eliminate the host Czech Republic from advancing to the medal round and now with a 2-3 record they can concentrate on their one game showdown with Korea, who currently sport a 3-2 tournament record.

Again tonight the story was starting pitching. Veteran British Columbia LHP Mark Hardy of Campbell River, BC pitched the game of his life. The Sophomore Thunderbird struck out 15 Czech Republic batters, while walking none and giving up only three hits over 8 innings. “Mark gave us a big time performance tonight when we needed it most,” said Head Coach Terry McKaig. “Our starting pitching has come around and now won two key games for us, giving our bullpen the needed rest for tomorrow’s game against Korea.” Read the rest of this entry »

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE

Mathew Wilson. Photo by Bob Broughton.

Team Canada, representing Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), were defeated by the United States, 4-3, at AVG Draci Brno Stadium, in Brno, CZ. Team Canada falls to 1-3, at the 4th annual World University Baseball Championships while the United States improves to 5-0.

For the second time in four games, at the 2008 World University Baseball Championships, Canada lost a lead late in the game and then fell in 11 innings to their opponent. Tonight Canada built up a three run lead on just two hits and two walks, aided by two US errors that gave the “red and black” a lead going into the bottom of the 8th inning where the US rallied for three runs, on two hits, and one costly Canadian error. The US would go onto defeat Canada on a double and a wild pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning, to send Team Canada to a 1 win and 3 loss record with two critical games remaining against the Czech Republic and Korea, if they are to figure in the Medal side of the Championship.

Team Canada’s Mathew Wilson (Bucknell) was the story of the game, the Senior pitcher gave Head Coach Terry McKaig eight strong innings giving up 6 hits, striking out 4, walking only one, while giving up no earned runs due to the error in the US three-run 8th inning. “Mat showed us he is a big-time pitcher when he helped Bucknell shutout Florida State, in Florida, during the NCAA Regional Tournament, ” said McKaig. “Tonight’s game was a perfect start for Mat he showed his character, poise and proved he can pitch on the big stage.” Read the rest of this entry »

Team Canada, representing Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), defeated Lithuania, 25-0, at Skokani-Olomouc Stadium, in Olomouc, CZ. Team Canada improves to 1-2 at the 4th annual World University Baseball Championships while Lithuania falls to 0-4.

Canada came out strong and took control of the game from the first pitch as veteran Adam Reynolds (Guelph) retired the side with the help of catcher Jeff Vickers (Lamar) throwing out a runner trying to steal second on the third play of the game. Canada quickly went to work offensively as they scored twice in the first and added six more in the second and never looked back as they won by 25 runs, the team’s largest margin of victory in the three World University Games Canada has participated in. Read the rest of this entry »

Jon Syrnyk. Photo by Bob Broughton.

Brno, CZ - Team Canada, representing Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), was defeated by Japan, 7-6, at AVG Draci Brno Stadium, in Brno, CZ. Team Canada falls to 0-2 at the 4th annual World University Baseball Championships while Japan improves to 2-0.

For the second straight night, Team Canada fell behind early as they spotted Japan four runs over the first three innings. However Team Canada, like it did on Friday Night, used the big inning to come from behind and tie the game at 4 all in the top of the 5th inning. Canada would then take a page out of Japan’s playbook and play “small ball” scoring once each in the 6th and 7th inning, on just one hit, to take a two run lead into the bottom of the 9th inning where Japan would score twice, on three hits, to send the game into extra innings. In the extra frames Team Canada reached base in both innings but was unable to score the go ahead run. Japan left two men on in the 10th inning and scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly by Takeshi Hosoyamada in the bottom of the 11th inning. Read the rest of this entry »

Ken Fuglerud. Photo by Bob Broughton

Team Canada, representing Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), was defeated by Chinese Taipei, 6-4, at AVG Draci Brno Stadium, in Brno, CZ. This was the first game for both teams at the 4th World University Baseball Championships.

Team Canada started strong and were hurt by inning ending double plays in both the first and second innings of the game. Canada’s Thain Simon (Santa Clara) started strong on the mound as he held Taipei scoreless through the first two innings, striking out two batters. The third inning was the main story of the tonight’s game, in the top of the third inning, Chinese Taipei changed pitchers and brought in Kai-Wen Cheng, who retired Team Canada in order for the first time in the game. In the bottom half of the inning, Chinese Taipei scored five runs off Simon, while only managing one extra base hit a double in the middle of the rally. Read the rest of this entry »

UBC/Team Canada Coach Terry McKaig. Photo by Dan Ashman.

Coach Terry McKaig has put together a team consisting mostly of Division I players, plus six members of his NAIA British Columbia team.

Key position players:

1B Marshall MacDonald (Dayton, Red Deer, AB) A Junior who started all 56 games for the Flyers. He hit .306, and led the Flyers with eight home runs and 42 RBI.

OF Ken Fuglerud (Saint Mary’s, Lethbridge, AB) hit .351 with three home runs and 25 RBI for the Gaels. He is a Senior.

OF Grant Kveder (Gonzaga, Lethbridge, AB) A Junior transfer from the College of Southern Idaho, where he was an Academic All-American. He hit .322 with 31 RBI.

C/1B Ryan Pilgrim (British Columbia, Pitt Meadows, BC) A Junior who hit .324 with four home runs and 31 RBI for the Thunderbirds. He has hit well in Team Canada’s pre-tournament exhibition games.

SS Sammie Starr (British Columbia, Toronto) Very good glove guy (.959 fielding), hit .268 with two home runs and 15 RBI. He is a Sophomore. Read the rest of this entry »

On July 9th only four outs stood between Matt Stabelfeld and a no-hitter. The Bellingham Bells’ 21-year-old left-hander was cruising towards a no-no until he gave up a two-out eighth-inning single to the Kitsap Blue Jackets’ Doug Buser of Oklahoma, a 2008 WCCBL All-Star.

Stabelfeld’s near masterpiece came at venerable Joe Martin Field in Bellingham. It was the Lewis-Clark State College product’s first win of the season. The southpaw from Turlock, California was 2-1 in 15 games this spring at L-C State.

The Bells defeated the BlueJackets 5-0, as Stabelfeld ended up going 8 innings, allowing just one hit, while walking five and fanning four.