Team Canada defeats Czech Republic 3-1 for fifth place

Alex White. Photo by Bob Broughton.

Team Canada, representing Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), defeated the Czech Republic, 3-1, at AVG Draci Brno Field, in Brno, CZ. Team Canada finishes the tournament 3-4, at the 4th annual World University Baseball Championships.

Team Canada won the 5th Place Consolation Game with strong pitching and a 3-run second inning. Mathew Wilson (Bucknell) continued to pitch strong for Head Coach Terry McKaig. Wilson, coming off his 8 strong innings against the United States where he allowed no earned runs and struck out 4 US hitters, pitched five shutout innings against the Czech Republic, striking out 6, while giving up one first inning single. The bullpen continued to impress all at the World University Championship as Adam Reynolds (Guelph), Scott Webster (British Columbia) and Kris Dabrowiecki (Northeastern) all pitched shutout relief innings, giving way to Team Canada’s closer Hiarali Garcia (Kansas) who gave up a walk and hit before settling down to record Canada’s first save at the tournament.

All of the Team Canada offense was in the second inning as Ryan Pilgrim (British Columbia) opened the inning with a single, after a hit by pitch and successful sacrifice bunt by Kyle Prevett (Grayson CC), Alex White (British Columbia) ripped a single to left scoring two runs. White would come home on one of the Czech Republic’s 4 errors on the afternoon. Canada would only manage three more hits in the victory over the Czech Republic and threatened only once more in the 5th inning when they left the bases loaded. Ken Fuglerud (Saint Mary’s) led the way with two hits and a walk. No other member of Team Canada registered more than one base hit in the game.

Canada’s 5th Place finish is the program’s highest in the three World University Games it has participated in. Add that laurel to the many records the team broke during the two week tournament and there is tremendous amount of optimism for the 2010 games. The FISU has not named a host city for 2010 as of today.

David A. Kent, Communications Manager