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 This was a game worthy of a cross-town rivalry going into the eighth inning. The starter for the Bulldogs was Douglas College ace Brandon Kaye, who played for Team Canada at the World University games. Team Canada's starter was right-hander Danny Britton-Foster of Ladysmith, BC.
The Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, and Team Canada responded with two runs in the top of the second on a double by 2B Alex White, followed by a single by LF Nic Lendvoy. White scored when RF Mike Elias grounded out, and Lendvoy scored on a single by 1B Bob Foerster. The Bulldogs tied it 2-2 in the third on an RBI single by 2B Scott Mackenzie, but Mackenzie was thrown out trying to stretch the single into a double. The Bulldogs started the bottom of the fourth with a couple of hits. C Brian Briscoe hit a ground ball that was fielded by SS Sammie Starr. Starr threw to third to get the lead runner. The throw was in time, but a bad call by the umpire resulted in the bases loaded with no outs. Only one run was scored, however, when Britton-Foster hit a batter, but he was able to get out of the inning with two fly outs and a strikeout. Team Canada re-took the lead in the fifth on a hit by 3B Jordan Padrinao and a bunt single by CF Jon Syrnyk. They scored on a double by C Ben Torrie, and the game went into the eighth inning with Team Canada clinging to a 4-3 lead. The top of the eighth started with a single by Lendvoy. The next batter, Elias, hit a slash bunt; he showed bunt, but hit a ground ball to second. It could have been a double-play ball, but it got by the second baseman. This put runners on second and third with no outs, and the Bulldog coach made a questionable decision. They intentionally walked Foerster, presumably because he is a left-handed batter, although Foerster was only 1-3 at that point in the game. The next batter, Starr, drew a walk to score a run. Kay was relieved by UBC alumnus Dan Osachoff. He struck out the first batter he faced, but Syrnyk hit an RBI single, DH Mitch Grossell hit a two-RBI double, and Team Canada moved into mercy-rule territory with RBI singles by Torrie, White, and Elias. The Bulldogs still weren't finished. Padrinao made the defensive play of the game to rob Briscoe of an extra-base hit down the third-base line, and he threw to second to get the lead runner and the second out of the inning. A walk and a hit batter by reliever Shawn Heatherington loaded the bases, but an infield popup ended the game. Britton-Foster pitched a steady six innings, scattering nine hits. The only negative was two hit batters. Heatherington looked much better than he did on Wednesday; he retired the first four batters he faced, and allowed only one hit. Kaye went seven innings, allowed ten hits, struck out nine. Britton-Foster got the win, and Kaye got the loss. Lendvoy and Elias were both 3-5 for the game, and Elias had two RBI. Torrie was 2-5 with three RBI. Syrnyk was 2-4 with an RBI. Former Thunderbird Mike Styrna was 1-3 for the Bulldogs. Box score and play-by-play GFI photo album  Comments (0) |  Add as favourites (102) | Views: 322
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