USA defeats Canada 5-2

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FROM USA BASEBALL

(PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia) – Christian Colon (Cal State Fullerton) and Yasmani Grandal (Miami) hit a home run each and Team USA opened the 2009 Enbridge Northern Pipeline World Baseball Challenge with a 5-2 victory over Canada at Citizen Stadium.

Christian Colon (Cal State Fullerton) hit a solo home run over the wall in left field in the first inning to put the U.S. up front early, 1-0.

But Canada immediately took the lead away in the bottom of the first. Kevin Atkinson sent a sacrifice fly to right field and Nic Lendovy hit an RBI fielder’s choice on USA starter Drew Pomeranz (Ole Miss) to lead 2-1 after one full inning.

Blake Forsythe (Tennessee) walked with two outs in the sixth inning and Grandal drove a two-run homer over the right field fence to retake the lead, 3-2.

Colon crossed the plate for Team USA’s fourth run on a wild pitch in the eighth inning by reliever Taylor King and Kolten Wong (Hawaii) hit an RBI double to center to score Casey McGrew (Wright State) in the ninth inning for the final run of the game.

USA starter Pomeranz (3-1) pitched 6.0 innings, gave up two runs and tallied six strikeouts for the win. Canada starter Danny Briton-Foster (0-1) also pitched 6.0 innings and gave up three runs.

Cody Wheeler (Coastal Carolina) came on in one inning of relief and struck out one batter. Nick Pepitone (Tulane) (1) pitched two innings and struck out one batter for the save.

Game two of the 2009 World Baseball Challenge for the U.S. will be against Germany, Monday, July 20, 2009 at Citizen Stadium at 7:00 PM (10:00 PM ET).

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