Pompey erupts

The third time’s the charm.

In the sixth inning, Canada’s Dalton Pompey came to the plate with the bases loaded. He struck out looking. In the seventh inning he came to the plate with the bases loaded and he lined sharply to first.

He didn’t make that mistake in the ninth when the scenario presented itself again.

With a near capacity Port Arthur Stadium crowd cheering him on, the Toronto Blue Jays draft pick blasted a one-out, 2-0 offering from Czech Republic reliever Matej Brabec over a drawn in outfielder in left, plating the tying and winning runs in Canada’s come-from-behind, Pool B-clinching 8-7 triumph in the round-robin finale at the World Junior Baseball Championship.

Not bad for a guy who wasn’t even in the starting lineup, nursing a leg injury, who took over the DH slot in the sixth, convincing his coaches he was good to go.

“I was just trying to stay calm,” said the Mississauga native, mobbed by his teammate after he touched down on second base, the partisan crowd erupting behind him.

“I had a 2-0 pitch and I knew he was going to come with a fastball, so I just tried to hit it hard to the outfield so I could score the runner from third. I obviously got a good pitch to hit and I drove it over the left-fielder’s head.”

Philip Diedrick waited momentarily on third, just in case the Czech fielder Ondrej Antos caught up to it. When it landed and rolled to the fence, Diedrick raced home, with only one thought on his mind.

“I know Dalton’s a good hitter and I had faith in him. I was just praying for a fly ball because I knew wherever a fly ball was I was going to tag up and try to score. Then when I saw it drop, I said, ‘Jalen, you better be right behind me,’” Diedrick said, his ever present smile on display.

Jalen being 1B Jalen Harris, who walked after Diedrick singled, after twice failing to lay down a sacrifice bunt as the Canadians tried their hand at small ball in the ninth.

Pompey’s hit erased an evening of frustration for the Canadians, who were resigned to a third-place finish when they woke up Wednesday morning, only to see top-ranked Cuba surprised by the Netherlands in extra innings.

That loss meant a Canadian win guaranteed them a first-place finish in Pool B, their 4-1 record tying them with South Korea, but in possession of the first tiebreaker because of a hard-fought 5-4 win earlier in the week.

But what should have been a cakewalk – the Czechs, the seventh-ranked European team and 0-4 in Thunder Bay – turned into a nail-biter, as Canada stared up at deficits of 4-1, 6-2 and, the most crushing of all, 7-6 in the ninth, when Ivan Hamza’s slow roller to second could not be converted into an inning-ending double play.

“Never in doubt,” joked Canadian manager Greg Hamilton. “No, we didn’t script that. Those are the tough ones. Those are the ones you fear, you really do. There are games you have to win, you should win. We just let it hang around too long. We weren’t sharp in spots and almost let it go."

Hamilton was forced to juggle his lineup in the second inning when star catcher Kellin Deglan couldn’t continue, sidelined by a thumb injury that Hamilton was taking no chances on, given Deglan’s status as a first round pick of the Texas Rangers.

Instead third-string catcher Rowan Wick donned the tools of ignorance, and he struggled at times, throwing the ball over third on a stolen base attempt in the second that allowed Tomas Sykora to score the tying run.

At the same time Diedrick took over in right.

The Czechs stunned the crowd in the third when Martin Cervenka drove a Jesen Dygestile-Therrien offering deep into the dusk, the scoreboard-smacker giving the underdogs a 4-1 lead.

Wick, who started the game in right-field, lifted a sacrifice fly that scored Alex Calbick in the fourth, but the Czechs scored twice more in the fifth, with two out nonetheless, to go up by four.

Canada began its long crawl back in the sixth when Justin Atkinson drew a one-out walk with the bases full to pull his team within three.

The fireworks continued in the seventh when Czech manager Vit Dockal stuck with starter Michael Sobotka a few batters too long.

Emmanuel Forcier led off with a single and Brandon Dailey followed with a walk. Calbick singled home the first runner and Diedrick singled to load the bases. Harris then singled to left and when Antos bobbled it, Calbick followed Bailey around the basepaths, evening the score at 6-6.

Hamilton kept his faith in reliever Brian Bardis, who took over in the fifth, letting him start the ninth, but the Czechs worked him over and manufactured the go-ahead run on Hamza's fielder’s choice, which scored Michael Vykoukal and produced a 7-6 advantage.

They just couldn’t hold it.

“It’s a tough loss for us,” said Cervenka. “We should have beaten them. They weren’t that good. We were unlucky.”

Canada takes on Italy in the quarterfinal Friday night. Other matches include a highly anticipated battle between the undefeated Americans and the highly touted, but underperforming, Cubans, who finished fourth in Pool B at 3-2.

The Netherlands will take on Chinese Taipei and Australia will play South Korea. The winners will advance to Saturday’s semifinal round, guaranteed to play for a medal on Sunday.