Canada’s offence got the job done and
the pitching was stellar as they would take the final Exhibition
Game of this series by a score of 4-1 over Australia
The pitchers were solid in shutting down the Aussie offence in
this eight inning contest, starting with the starter Jonathan
Lockwood (Toronto, ON)
Lockwood only allowed one hit and two walks with a pair of strikeouts
in three inning of work
“You have to approach this time to work on things you need
to work on and treat it as a learning experience going into the
tournament so you can be at your best” says Lockwood
“Every game is going to be a combination of guys
It’s good that everybody finished well and did what they
had to do and that looks good come tournament time because guys
are going to go in there and get it done”
Jamie Richmond (Mississauga, ON) and Alexandre Periard (St. Eustache,
QC) were in good form in relief
Richmond, in three innings pitched, allowed two hits with two
strikeouts and Periard gave up a run on three hits and a walk
with one punch out in two innings in relief
“It was a good outing for everybody today” says Manager
Terry Puhl
“Lockwood was outstanding, and he’s going to be a workhorse
for us going forward
Richmond did what he always does and Periard was solid as well”
Offensively, the star in this game was Jimmy VanOstrand (Richmond,
BC) who doubled, homered and scored twice
He hit the double in the second inning and would come in to score
the game’s first run on a single from Nick Weglarz (Stevensville,
ON)
VanOstrand would homer in the fourth inning off of Adam Blackley
with Matt Rogelstad (New Westminster, BC) on base to increase
the Canadian lead
“It was good to have a game like that to finish off the exhibition
series” says VanOstrand who was 2-for-2 with two RBI
“I’m looking forward to going to Taiwan and hopefully
keep it going”
David Corrente (Chatham, ON) would also add to the offence with
a solo-home run to lead off the fifth inning off of Gavin Dlouhy
Corrente would hit the second pitch of the inning over the left
field fence to put Canada ahead 4-0
The Aussies would break the shutout bid in the seventh inning
when Andrew Utting would single off of Periard to drive in Ben
Risinger and put the Australians on the board
The Canadians finished the exhibition series with a 3-1-1 record,
which could be a good sign going into the Final Olympic Qualifier
“It looks good for us” says VanOstrand about his hopes
for the Qualifier
“It’s a tough tournament and there is going to be a
lot of tough competition there but we definitely have a good team
to give ourselves a chance
It’s going to be lots of fun”
“We have all the tools here to get it done
We just need to stick to our game and we’ll get the results
that we want” says Puhl
Canada will make its way over to Taiwan on Tuesday, March 4th
to begin its road to Beijing at the Final Olympic Qualifier which
is scheduled to begin on March 7th to the 15th
Canada will play for three open spots against Australia, Germany,
Korea, Mexico, South Africa, Spain and Taiwan
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Box Score |
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Play-by-Play |