PRINCE ALBERT — After Canada defeated the Dominican Republic 4 to 3 Friday evening, fans descended to the dugout to congratulate Team Canada at the WBSC Men's Softball World Cup Finals in Prince Albert.
Number 16, left fielder Mathieu Roy from St-Gervais, Que., was surrounded by family who came to watch him play. Despite the win, Canada is out of medal contention and has one more game against Australia on Saturday, July 12, at 2:30 p.m. in the Placement Round.
“Obviously not the way we were expecting it to go. We were here to win gold, but after two games, we already knew we were out of the medals, so it’s disappointing,” said Roy. “The format is a problem, and they definitely need to change it,” said Roy.
Canada’s men’s softball players are competing against the eight best teams in the world: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Dominican Republic, Japan, New Zealand, the U.S.A., and Venezuela. The six-day world championship has a final bronze, silver, and gold medal games scheduled for Sunday, July 13, at Prime Minister's Park.
Team Canada’s outfielder Quinten Bruce suffered a broken ankle sliding into second base in a game against Argentina, which put him on the bench for a tournament in China in three weeks.
Men’s Softball Team Canada 32-year-old pitcher Ty Sebastian, says playing in Prince Albert enabled him to have his wife, son and extended family support him.
“It’s definitely nice when something doesn’t go your way or a bad game happens, and you’ve got someone there after you see and they pick you up a little bit better instead of just being by yourself and thinking about that, you let it go,” he said.
Australia leads the standings with a 2 - 0. Canada is tied with Argentina at 1 - 1 and the Dominican Republic at 0 - 2.
“It’s more or less now trying to get the games in and give maximum effort to the fans that are here. We still have to show up and give them a good game,” said Sebastian.
