November 7, 2019

By Adam Morissette

Baseball Canada

SEOUL, Republic of Korea – Canada’s Men’s Baseball Team ran into some quality pitching while Korea used timely hitting to come away with a 3-1 victory in WBSC Premier12 Group C play at the Gocheok Sky Dome.

The loss drops Canada’s record to 1-1 with a pivotal contest looming against an Australia side that is looking for its first win while Korea moves to 2-0 and will play 1-1 Cuba on Friday.

The top two seeds in Group C advance to the Super Round that gets underway at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on November 11th.

BOX SCORE | HIGHLIGHTS

“We faced a very good (pitching) staff over there with Korea, they threw the ball extremely well,” commented Canadian Manager Ernie Whitt. “I’m proud of our guys, they hung in there to the end.

“But give credit to Korea, they pitched (well) and played good defence.”

Korea starting pitcher Kwanghyun Kim worked six scoreless innings allowing just one hit, a Jordan Lennerton (Langley, BC) single in the fifth, and struck out seven batters before turning things over to their bullpen who shut Canada’s offence down with the exception of a Wes Darvill (Langley, BC) RBI double in the eighth as Canada came to within one run of the lead before Korea added an insurance run in the ninth.

Canadian starting pitcher Rob Zastryzny (Edmonton, Alta.) went toe-to-toe with Kim for five innings scattering three hits while striking out six to keep the game scoreless but was removed in the sixth with one out and runners on first and second base.

“He ran out of gas,” said Whitt. “He probably threw 10 more pitches than we wanted him to and his pitch count was up so I had to remove him from the game.”

Whitt went to his bullpen and brought in Chris Leroux (Mississauga, Ont.) who got the first batter he faced to pop out before loading the bases on a walk.

Jaehwan Kim then lined a single to right field to give Korea a 2-0 lead.

Sangwoo Cho worked the final inning and two-thirds and recorded two strikeouts to earn the save.

UP NEXT

Canada will send RHP Brock Dykxhoorn (Goderich, Ont.) to the mound to face Australia at the Gocheok Sky Dome with the first pitch set for November 7 at 10 p.m. E.T.

RECENT MEETINGS

-October 11, 2011: Australia 7, Canada 0 (IBAF World Cup)

-September 14, 2009: Australia 5, Canada 3 (IBAF World Cup)

-March 9, 2008: Australia 10, Canada 5 (Final Olympic Qualifier)

- November 14, 2007: Australia 7, Canada 6 (IBAF World Cup)

-August 22, 2004: Canada 11, Australia 0 (Athens Olympics)

TUNE IN/FOLLOW LIVE

In Canada: CBCSports.ca will be streaming Canada’s Group C games along with the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices, and via the free CBC Gem streaming service.

Nov. 7 vs AUS @ 9:40pm ET