2008 WUC Baseball: Update
July 16th, 2008
TEAM CANADA DEFEATS CZECH REPUBLIC U18 TEAM, 23-1, IN EXHIBITION FRIENDLY
Team Canada, representing the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), defeated the Czech Republic Under-18 National Junior team, 23-1, at AVG Draci Brno Stadium, in Brno, CZE. Team Canada improves its exhibition record to 4-1, with one exhibition game remaining, tomorrow against the Czech Under-18 team. The 4th World University Games Baseball Tournament opens on Thursday, July 17th with the Opening Ceremonies, in Ostrava, CZE. Canada's first game is against Chinese Taipei, on Friday, July 18th, at 6:00PM (12:00PM EST). The Czech Under-18 Team, which travels to Montreal, Quebec, to participate in the Under-18 World Championships next week, committed three errors in the first inning leading to 7 Canadian runs before they ever hit the field, defensively. Canada would go on to score 11-runs in the top oif the 7th inning and hold the young Czech team to 2-hits, both coming early in the game, as they retired the Czechs the last 5 innings giving up only one base runner on a hit by pitch. The offensive story for Team Canada was the bottom of the order as Outfielder Eric Cattoni (Saint Mary's University-Lethbridge, AB) went 1 for 2 with 4 walks and drove in two runs and Infielder Alex White (UBC-Richmond, BC) 3 for 4 with a walk and 3 runs scored. All ten Team Canada players contributed to the victory with the highlight being a 7th inning Grand Slam Home Run by Left Fielder Ken Fuglerud (Saint Mary's University-Lethbridge, AB). Fuglerud drove in 5 runs and scored 4 times in the game. Pitching Coach Shawn Corness (UBC) was able to use 5 different pitchers over the 7 inning game with his staff allowing only the two hits while picking off one base runner and striking out 12 batters including the side in the 5th inning by Adam Reynolds (University of Guelph-Guelph, ON). Team Canada concludes the exhibition part of their schedule with a 2:00PM (8:00AM EST) game against the Czech Under-18 team, at AVG Draci Brno Stadium.
TOURNAMENT NOTES
Team India has dropped out of the tournament leaving the 4th World University Baseball Championship at 7 Countries. Team Canada now has a bye on Saturday, July 19th and the only other schedule change as a result of the 7-team event is the July 22nd Canada-USA game has been switched to Brno, CZE at 6:00PM (12:00PM EST) from 5:00PM in Blansko, CZE.
