Canada rolls along

Canada’s offense was on a roll Tuesday night.

Every starter racked up at least one hit as Canada continued its strong performance as host of the World Junior Baseball Championship, smothering Panama with a four-run first en route to a 9-2 win in front of another packed house at Port Arthur Stadium.

At 3-1 Canada is tied atop the Pool A standings with South Korea and Cuba, who duelled earlier in the day, the South Koreans coming out on top 5-3.

Centre-fielder Dalton Pompey, coming off a 1-for-3 performance that included a double, two stolen bases and the game’s first run in the bottom of the first, said the team is pretty happy with where they are at the WJBC, a tournament Canada hasn’t won since 1991.

“We’re in a solid position. If we come out and we win tomorrow and we’ve got a good chance from first to third place,” said Pompey. “We’re playing really good baseball and can compete with anybody.”

Though it got a little sloppy at the end – the team made a couple of ninth-inning errors that allowed the Panamanians to score both of their runs, manager Greg Hamilton said he’d rather it happen in a game that’s out of reach than in the medal round when it’s win or go home.

“Overall we did what we had to do. Those are games that you have to win, and I was pleased on how we played overall.”

Pompey said the miscues are already in the past.

“We kind of lost concentration a little bit, but that’s all right,” he said. “We’ll get them tomorrow.”

Teammate Alex Calbick, who pinch hit for lead-off hitter Emmanuel Forcier in the sixth and wound up going 2-for-2 with a run, said the effort was there, but the execution was lacking a little at the end. He just hopes the extra couple of innings of work won’t hurt them down the road as arms start to wear down.

“Obvously we’re disappointed that our pitchers threw a little longer and threw more pitches, but we’re going to have to deal with that,” Calbick said. “We’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

What mattered, he said, was getting the victory and ensuring they’ll be around for medal play.

“It’s a great position to be in. I don’t know who we’ll get in the quarterfinal, but we’re definitely in a great position to succeed here.

Not that the Panamanians, only in the tournament because Japan withdrew, put up much of a fight.

By the second inning it was obvious to anyone watching that the only thing left to be decided was how soon the game would end.

Canada piled on four runs in the second on Panama starter Bryan Quiroz, who lasted just 1.1 innings. The key blow, and the hit that sent Quiroz to the showers, was Pompey’s double that drove home Forcier and No. 9 hitter Jimmy Ralph.

Canadian starter Mike Ellis, on the other hand, was having no troubles, scattering a pair of hits over four innings before Hamilton lifted him to spare his arm. Relievers Joel Pierce, Brian Bardis, Jonathan Paquet allowed just one hit through the eighth, when Panama finally mounted an attack on Nicholas Pivetta.

Pinch hitter Erick Cox and 3B Mario Sanjur, who reached on an error by shortstop Justin Atkinson, advanced on another error by Ralph and eventually scored on singles by Leovany Torres – by that time on the mound, one of five Panamanian hurlers on the night – and catcher Charlie Apu.

Despite the lopsided nature of the score, Panama manager Claudino Hernandez said it’s a game his team should have won.

“The Canadian team is very deceiving and a very good tactical team,” he said through an interpreter. “But it’s not a very difficult team. We could have beaten the team. They have really good hitters and the pitchers are very consistent.”

Canada wraps up round-robin play on Wednesday night against the Czech Republic.