FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 29th, 2015
 

Team Canada Remains Undefeated
with Thrilling Win over New Zealand

(Saskatoon, SK) The Canadian Men’s National Team kept its perfect record intact at the 2015 WBSC Men’s World Softball Championship with a thrilling 2-1 win over the defending World Champions from New Zealand. Canadian pitcher Sean Cleary (Harbour Main, NL) and New Zealand’s Heinie Shannon kept the hits at a premium throughout the game until Canada was able to break through with a two-run homerun by Steve Mullaley (Freshwater, NL) in the bottom of the sixth after New Zealand relieved Shannon with Kurt Schollum. The Black Sox made things even more interesting with a solo homerun by Wayne Laulu in the top of the seventh but that was as close as they would get.

In the top of the first, New Zealand got a one-out single and the runner stole second, but Cleary settled down and struck out the next batter before inducing a ground ball to third base to end the inning. Mathieu Roy (St-Gervais, QC) led off with a walk for Canada, but the three next batters were retired to leave him stranded at first. New Zealand got a one-out walk in the second but could not advance the runner any further, and Canada also got a leadoff walk that was quickly wiped out by a double play.

The following inning, Roy got things started again with two outs by singling up the middle and advanced to third on a double to the right-center field gap by Ryan Wolfe (Melbourne, ON) that was cut off before it could reach the fence, forcing Roy to hold at third. Brad Ezekiel (Harbour Main, NL) was intentionally walked to load the bases, but the next batter struck out as the game remained scoreless through three innings.

New Zealand got a two-out walk and the runner stole second in the top half of the fourth, and Cleary bounced back with another big strikeout to leave a runner stranded in scoring position. In the bottom of the frame, Jason Hill (St. John’s, NL) singled through the right side of the infield with one out but a quick double play got the Black Sox out of the inning. Cleary struck out the first two batters he faced in the fifth but ran into some trouble as the next batter doubled followed by an intentional walk to put two runners on base, and Cole Evans hit a deep fly ball to right field that was caught by Roy a few feet from the fence. Roy managed a two-out double of his own in the bottom of the inning but a ground out to shortstop kept the game tied through five innings.

In the top of the sixth, New Zealand got a two-out single but catcher Ryan Boland (Goulds, NL) threw him out at second on a steal attempt a few pitches later. Schollum replaced Shannon to start the bottom half of the sixth and walked Ezekiel before Mullaley connected with an outside pitch and drove it deep to right field, clearing the fence for a two-run homerun and sending the large crowd into a frenzy as Canada took the late 2-0 lead. Hill later singled but a double play ended the inning. Cleary struck out the first batter in the top of the seventh, but Laulu took a full count pitch deep to left-center field for a solo homerun to cut the lead to 2-1. Cleary bounced right back by striking out the next two batters to secure the complete game win.

Box Score: Canada 2 vs. New Zealand 1

Cleary was fantastic in the pitcher’s circle, allowing one run on only four hits and three walks with nine strikeouts. Roy led Canada at the plate with a double, a single and a walk, with Mullaley’s two-run homerun being the key hit. Hill contributed two singles while Wolfe chipped in with a double.

In other scores on the third day of competition at the WBSC Men’s World Softball Championship, Denmark blanked the Netherlands 2-0, Guatemala shut out the Philippines 4-0, the Dominican Republic scored three runs in the top of the seventh to beat Mexico 4-3, the Czech Republic doubled Great Britain 4-2, Japan defeated the United States 5-4 and Australia beat Venezuela 5-1.

Team Canada (3-0) will get a day off tomorrow before they take on Argentina (2-0) at 6:00pm CST on Tuesday.

The event website can be found at http://www.2015isfmensworldsoftball.ca/, with Sportscanada.tv webstreaming available at http://sportscanada.tv/worldsoftball/ and Pointstreak live scoring at http://wbscmens.bbstats.pointstreak.com/. The event can also be followed on Facebook (2015 ISF Men’s Worlds) and Twitter (@ISFMens2015). Also make sure to check out Champ’s Chatter – the official newsletter of the 2015 WBSC Men’s World Softball Championship – with a new issue published daily at http://www.2015isfmensworldsoftball.ca//english/media/champs-chatter.html!

How to Follow Team Canada
Softball Canada Website: http://www.softball.ca
Twitter: @SoftballCanada
Facebook: SoftballCanadaNSO

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For more information, please contact:

Gilles LeBlanc
Manager - Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
(613) 523-3386 ext. 3105
gleblanc@softball.ca