Canada holds lead, cruises past Asia-Pacific

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BANGOR – The hangover effect from Tuesday night’s crushing loss to Hilo, Hawaii was apparent, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Canadian champions from rebounding with a win Wednesday afternoon. Just 13 1/2 hours after watching Hawaii turn a 5-1 deficit with two outs…
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BANGOR – The hangover effect from Tuesday night’s crushing loss to Hilo, Hawaii was apparent, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Canadian champions from rebounding with a win Wednesday afternoon.

Just 13 1/2 hours after watching Hawaii turn a 5-1 deficit with two outs in the seventh to a 6-5 win against them, the boys from Surrey, British Columbia took another 5-1 lead against the Asia-Pacific champs from Saipan (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).

Only this time, the Canadians added to their lead en route to a 10-1 victory over CNMI on a rainy afternoon at Mansfield Stadium. The win left Surrey with a 2-1 record and dropped CNMI to 2-2 in pool A play.

“We obviously deserved to win that game yesterday so today it was a little tough to come out and compete,” said Surrey manager Dennis Springenatic. “We didn’t start very well, but we managed to hang in there. All we can do is win today, win tomorrow and hope we get into Friday’s semifinal round.”

Surrey wasn’t totally lethargic from the outset. Sure, Saipan scored one run in the first thanks to one hit and three Canadian errors, but Surrey came back with three runs of its own in the bottom of the first courtesy of three hits and three Saipan errors.

Surrey starting pitcher Chris Brien lasted just two-thirds of an inning and gave way to Carsen Nylund, who earned the win with 6 2/3 innings of four-hit, scoreless relief. That was the good news. The bad was that Nylund won’t be eligible to pitch again until Saturday’s championship round.

“He did a great job, but it was too bad we had to use him today because he’s one of my better guys and we wanted to save him for tomorrow or Friday,” said Sprinenatic.

Nylund fed Saipan a steady diet of fastballs.

“I didn’t really try to do anything too fancy,” Nylund said. “It was the location of my pitches more than the speed.”

Offensively, Carney Chamberlain and Brock Greaves led the way. Chamberlain went 3-for-4 with three singles, two RBIs, and two runs. Greaves went 3-for-4 with three singles, three RBIs, and two runs.

“We were really upset about last night, so we just took all our anger out on the ball,” Greaves said.

Even the coaching staff was still reeling from Tuesday night as Surrey batted out of order, skipping No. 9 hitter Nylund to start the bottom of the fourth. The error was detected by Saipan two batters later, but it was too late to protest.

“I just think our heads weren’t in the game today and we were still thinking about last night,” Springenatic said. “It was just kind of a sloppy, not very emotional game, and I can understand after the way we lost last night. It was a little tough to get these guys up today, so we’re just happy we won.”

Saipan also had a gaffe that went undetected by the opponents, allowing starting pitcher Ben Cabrera exceed the 95-pitch limit. He was relieved in the fourth after his 104th pitch.

CANADA 10, ASIA-PACIFIC 1

(Pool A, Wednesday)

SAIPAN SURREY, B.C.

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Ttno,ss-3b 3 0 0 0 Stvens,3b 0 0 0

Rglofoi,lf-p 3 1 0 0 Clark, ph 4 1 0

Techur,3b 2 0 1 0 Quan, cf 4 3 0

Salas, ss 1 0 0 0 Chmbrln,rf 4 2 2

Ada, 1b 3 0 0 0 Greaves,ss 4 2 3

Cepeda,rf 2 0 0 0 McDnld, lf 3 0 3

Ayuyu, rf 1 0 0 0 Lin, 2b 1 0 0 0

Manalo, 2b 3 0 2 0 Davis, c 4 0 1

Cbrera,3b-lf 3 0 0 0 Hadlow,2b 1 0 1

Iguel, cf 3 0 1 0 Brien,1b-p 2 1 0

Nedlic, c 3 0 1 0 Derish, 1b 1 0 0

Stebbe, 1b 1 0 0 0

Lebreton,1b 0 0 0 0

Nylund, p 2 1 0 0

Totals 27 1 6 0 Totals 31 10 11 10

Asia-Pacific 100 000 0 – 1

Canada 310 222 0 – 10

E-Lin, Taitano, Cepeda, Iguel; Greaves 2, Chamberlain; LOB-Asia-Pacific 5, Canada 12; SF-MacDonald; SB-Stevens

Asia-Pacific IP H R ER BB SO

Cabrera (L,0-1) 3 2/3 5 6 3 6 5

Taitano 2 4 4 4 1 4

Rogolofoi 1/3 2 0 0 0 1

Canada

Brien 2/3 2 1 0 0 0

Nylund (W,1-0) 6 1/3 4 0 0 0 6

HBP-Quan by Taitano; WP-Taitano, Nylund.

T-2:16; A-93


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