AUSSIES CAME FROM DOWN UNDER TO CLINCH GOLD
2008-07-01

Australia's junior men’s softball team won its fourth consecutive ISF Jr. Men’s World Championship in an extra-inning duel at the Pepsi Softball Centre in Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada), on Sunday.

“Softball Australia is thrilled with this fantastic result, which is a just reward for the entire squad who has worked hard in the lead up to this event,” said Mark McAllion, CEO of Softball Australia.

It took eight innings for Australia to seal a 2-1 victory over the unrelenting Canadians.

Through seven scoreless innings both pitchers showcased a golden performance, only surrendering two hits apiece up to that point.

In the top of the eighth Canada started with Jessin Potskin on second base under the international tiebreaker rule. Unable to successfully get a bunt down, Cory Jones came back with a RBI single off Australian pitcher Matt Stafford, giving Canada a 1-0 advantage heading into the bottom of the inning.

With two outs and runners on second and third, Canadian pitcher Devon McCullough just needed the next batter to hit a soft groundball as the previous batter had done. Instead, pinch hitter Drew Faulkner approached the plate and nailed a single down the middle to drive in the tying and winning runs to give Australia that elusive gold yet again.

McCullough finished the game with five hits allowed and struck out three. Matt Stafford gave up just three hits and recorded five strikeouts.

Canada received a top performance out of Cory Jones, going 2-for-3 at the plate.

Heath Wells of Australia also went 2-for-3, but it was Faulkner, going 1-for-1 with two RBI, who brought the Aussie Colts from down under to defend their title.

Earlier that day Canada played in the bronze medal game against Japan.

The host team held a 3-2 lead heading into the seventh inning. They quickly retired the first two batters and were one out away from the grand final. However, Japanese hitter Shota Tsutsui hit a deep fly to right field for a game-tying home run. Canada came back swinging with Terrell Walker getting on base from a bobbled grounder to shortstop. Then Dylan Cunningham connected with a walk-off, two-run homer to drive Canada into the gold medal game.

The tournament consisted of 12 nations – Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, United States, and Venezuela – competing in 70 games throughout the ten-day tournament.

“Each team from first to 12th should be so proud of the entertaining brand of softball they played over the last ten days,” said Kevin Quinn, Softball Canada president. “All the medal winners are very deserving.”

The next ISF world championship will take place July 17-26, 2009, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada) for the XII Men’s World Championship.