2008 WUC Baseball: Day 8
July 25th, 2008
TPE vs. USA
KOR vs. CAN: 5-4
Team Canad 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 1:00PM. 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 receive 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 4-runs in the second inning on two hits, an error and a bad bounce in the outfield that went over the left fielders head enabling three runs to score. Korea would add another run in the fifth inning on a similiar play a hard hit single to left field bounced over the left fielder's head and Korea would score what would turn out to be the winning run. The Koreans starter Yu Kang Heo pitched well for close to 8 innings as he held Team Canada to two hits, while striking out 5 hitters. In the 8th inning Team Canada opened the frame with singles by Marshall MacDonald (Dayton-Red Deer, AB) and Scott Webster (UBC-Coquitlam, BC), that chased Heo from ther game and Korea's set-up man, Chan Soo Yoon was exactly what the Canadian hitters needed to get back into the game, after walking Jeff Vickers (Lamar-Nanaimo, BC), left fielder Grant Kveder (Gonzaga-Lethbridge, AB) crushed a Yoon pitch into the left field corner clearing the bases and bringing Canada to within one run. Kveder would come home on a Eric Cattoni (Saint Mary's-Lethbridge, AB) sacrifice fly. It is the closest Canada would come to tying the game. Thain Simon (Santa Clara-El Dorado Hills, CA) pitched well despite the second inning. At one point in the game, Thain retired 10 straight Koreans, while striking out 3 over the six innings he pitched. The bullpen again shut the door on Korea giving the offense a chance to comeback, but Korean Closer Bon Beom Gu shut the door in the 9th inning to record the save and eliminate Canada from any hopes of a medal. Vickers reached base all four times on a single, walk, hit by pitch and a fielding error, the only other Canadians to reach base more than once were Macdonald, Kveder and Starr (UBC-Toronto). Canada had only 5 hits in the game.
Daily Results
TPE vs. USA: 2-3 KOR vs. CAN: 5-4 JPN vs. CZE: 10-1
More info can be found on the OC website at http://wubc.baseball.cz.
