Team USA Homers Past British Columbia, 12-2

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FROM USA BASEBALL

(PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia) – Rick Hague (Rice), Bryce Brentz (Middle Tennessee State) and Michael Choice (UT Arlington) each hit a home run in the fifth inning and Team USA beat British Columbia 12-2 in eight innings at the 2009 Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline World Baseball Challenge at Prince George Citizen Field.

Devon Franklin hit a home run over the left field fence in the first inning and Mike Collins hit a homer in the fourth to lead 2-0 on Team USA starter Cody Wheeler (Coastal Carolina).

Andy Wilkins (Arkansas) placed a double down the right field to score Yasmani Grandal (Miami) from second base and a wild pitch by British Columbia starter Corey Parsons scored Choice to tie the game at two in the bottom of the fourth. 

Rick Hague (Rice) scored the go ahead run with his third home run of the summer in the fifth inning.  Bryce Brentz (Middle Tennessee State) then slammed a two run shot over the left field fence and Michael Choice (UT Arlington) followed with the third home run of the inning for the 6-2 lead.

The U.S. scored another run in the sixth inning by an RBI groundout by Christian Colon (Cal State Fullerton) and another five runs in the bottom of the eighth behind RBIs by Hague, Brad Miller (Clemson) and Choice.

Team USA starter Wheeler (3-0) pitched seven full innings, giving up two home runs and striking out ten batters for the win.  Trevor Bauer (UCLA) pitched one inning to close out the game and tallied two strikeouts.

Corey Parsons suffered the loss after he pitched 4 1/3 innings for British Columbia.  He gave up five runs on four hits and struck out four U.S. batters.  Tristan Flotre pitched three innings of relief and gave up five runs on eight hits.  

With the win, Team USA clinched the number one seed for the playoff portion of the tournament.  The U.S. will face the number two seed, Team Canada, on Friday, July 24, 2009 with an automatic bid to the championship game on the line.  Game time is set for 7 p.m. (10 p.m. ET).  Gerrit Cole (UCLA) is expected to take the mound for Team USA.