USA rallies from four down to beat Canada

USA – Canada 5-4

CAN 012 100 000  4 10 1
USA 000 210 20X  5  9 1

Box score
Recap on USA Baseball
Recap on Baseball.ca

After Team USA had beaten Canada in an exhibition series in three of the four games, including a pair of lopsided wins, before the Olympics, they might thought the Saturday affair would be an easy one. But they had to work really hard to move their record to 2-2 and needed to overcome a 0-4 deficit in a 5-4 victory.

Canada had the better start, scoring four runs till the middle of the fourth for a commanding lead. Emerson Frostad drove in the first run with a RBI double in the second. Emmanuel Garcia added two more in the third reaching home on a groundout by Michael Saunders, after hitting a RBI triple. Adam Stern made it 4-0 with a RBI single one frame later. But it was the last time they would put a run on the scoreboard.

Team USA started the rally in the bottom of the fourth with a Brian Barden homerun and a RBI single by John Gall. They cut the deficit to a run in the fifth on Terry Tiffee’s RBI double. After a scoreless sixth, they completed the comeback after the seventh inning stretch. Barden and Tiffee connected on back-to-back two-out RBI doubles to seal the 5-4 win. They had the opportunity to add a few insurance runs in the eighth, but left three men stranded.

Canada had just three more base runners after the fourth with their best chance to score in the sixth, when they put runners on the corners with two outs, but Stern struck out to end the threat.

Brett Anderson (USA) allowed four runs (3 ER) on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. James Avery (CAN) gave up two runs on four hits in 3 2/3 innings. Brian Duensing (W 1-0) replaced Anderson with two outs in the sixth and received the win for 3 1/3 innings of one-hit relief. Chris Reitsma (L 0-1) took the loss.