Hermosillo, Mexico – The Canadian U18 Men’s National Team battled back for hard fought 6-5 win in an extra inning against Venezuela at the WBSC World Cup and will play against the United States in the bronze medal game on Sunday after Japan defeated Mexico later in the evening.
 
Venezuela was the first to score in the top of the first inning when the first batter of the game hit a homerun. Canada later came back to tie the game with a run in the bottom of the third, as Riley Good (Wingham, Ont.) and Sharl Leclerc (Sainte-Claire, Que.) each singled and Good crossed the plate on a throwing error by the shortstop that went into the Venezuelan bench.
 
Canada took the lead in the bottom of the fourth when Mika Houle (St-Leonard-d’Aston, Que.) worked a walk, advanced to second on a walk by Cam Weatherbee (Brookfield, N.S.) and to third on a wild pitch before Good drove him in with an infield single. The red and white then added a run to its lead in the fifth when Adrian Green (Carbonear, N.L.) tripled to right-center and scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Alex McGillivray (Durham, Ont.) to make the score 3-1.
 
However, Venezuela stormed back to score four runs and take a 5-3 lead in the top of the sixth, highlighted by a three-run homerun by Juan Pereira. Canada showed their resiliency in the bottom of the inning, with Houle and Danny Scott (Stratford, Ont.) starting the rally with a pair of singles before a pair of run-scoring singles by Good and Leclerc evened the game at 5-5.
 
After neither team scored in the seventh, the game went into the eighth inning with each team starting with a runner on second base due to the international tie-breaker rule. Mexico put some pressure on in the top of the inning by getting runners on second and third with one out, but a great play by Blake Brubacher (Newton, Ont.) at shortstop cut down a run at the plate followed by a ground out to Brubacher to keep the game tied. In the bottom of the inning, Weatherbee put a bunt down and was safe at first on a bad throw and Good was intentionally walked to load the bases before Leclerc hit a sacrifice fly to left to score the winning run.
 
Box Score: Canada 6 vs. Venezuela 5
 
Nate Thiessen (Surrey, B.C.) got the ball in the pitcher’s circle for Canada and allowed a run on three hits with two strikeouts in an inning plus pitched. Leclerc pitched two innings and a third of relief, holding Venezuela to only one hit and he struck out three. Cohen Christner (New Hamburg, Ont.) pitched the final four and two third innings, allowing four runs and striking out two. At the plate, Good went 3-for-3 with two runs batted in and a walk, while Leclerc had two hits and drove in two. Green, McGillivray, Houle and Scott each contributed with a hit.
 
The win improved Canada’s Super Round record to 3-2 and put them in a position to play for gold if Mexico was to defeat Japan later in the evening, but Japan beat Mexico 7-4 to set up a rematch between the two teams for gold at 5:00pm local time (7:00pm EST) on Sunday. Canada will square off against the United States in the bronze medal game at 2:00pm local time (4:00pm EST).